TB main cause of death in Bougainville: Reports

National
Source:
The National,Thursday June 9th, 2016

Tuberculosis remains a major cause of deaths in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville according to the 2015 health reports, the Bougainville health minister Clement Totovun says.
“TB treatment success rate for us has been 70 per cent. I want to see it more than 85 per cent in Bougainville therefore I have instructed my director for public health to put together strategies to address this,” he said.
Totovun said two cases of multi-drug resistant TB were reported last year and the ABG has developed plans to increase the treatment rate to 75 per cent.
This, he said would be implemented in the North, Central and South Bougainville electorates.
He said meningitis was the second leading cause of death followed by diabetes and respiratory illnesses. The number of maternal deaths also has gone up between 2012 and 2015.
He said despite challenges they have made progress in some key areas such as decreasing the number of malaria deaths, pneumonia deaths in children under five, malnutrition-related deaths and all health facilities now provide supervised births.
A health systems policy was approved by ABG in 2014 and officials are now in the process of establishing a health department as the region prepares for the referendum in June 2019.