TB treatment for PNG nationals to continue

QUEENSLAND Health has promised to continue providing tuberculosis treatment to Papua New Guinea nationals visiting the Torres Strait until such time as the Australian government decides clinics in PNG are ready to cope with the disease.
The assurances come amid fears that a multi-drug-resistant strain of the disease, MDR-TB, will spread to the Torres Strait and from there to mainland Australia.
There have been two known cases of MDR-TB found in Australian residents in the Torres Strait.
Diagnosed in December 2009, the residents are believed to have acquired the infection from PNG nationals as a result of cross-border movement.
Queensland’s chief health officer Jeannette Young said the Commonwealth had decided to boost the Papua New Guinea health system so that PNG nationals could be treated for tuberculosis on their side of the border, instead of crossing into Queensland.
“That means TB services for PNG nationals which are located within Australia will transition across the border into PNG,” Young said.
Member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch said he did not believe PNG was ready to run the clinics, and the Daru Hospital was a hospital “in name only”.
“The facility is without a doctor, its radiography and pathology units are not ope­rational and the pharmacy is devoid of even the most basic medicines,” Entsch said.
“In the light of the condition of Daru Hospital and the pervasive lack of services, the planned addition of a new TB isolation ward to the facility is perplexing.”
He described it as a “band-aid solution”, saying it was not a suitable alternative to the Australian-run clinics.
“I am certain it will prove to be a death sentence for many Australian and PNG men, women and children,” he said.
“Desperate people will continue to come to Australia for treatment, and with them will come the very real threat of a TB outbreak in this country.
“I believe what is required in the immediate term is for the federal government to continue to appropriately fund the Boigu and Saibai TB clinics.
“In the longer term, we should build PNG’s capacity for healthcare provision by directly funding rural aid posts, strategically placed in villages in the Western province.”
Young said the Queensland government had made it clear to the Commonwealth that Queensland was ready to continue providing any and all TB services to PNG nationals – including maintaining the clinics – until the Commonwealth decided the PNG clinics were ready.
“The Commonwealth’s decision will have no bearing on the diagnosis or treatment of Australian Torres Strait Island residents, who will continue to have access to medical services through a network of 16 primary health centres across islands including Saibai, Boigu and Duaun, as well as routine medical outreach services,” Young said. – Torres News