We need to do more in TB fight

TUBERCULOSIS or TB continues to be a major killer disease in Papua New Guinea.
But people do not have to die from TB infections, as Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said recently.
With TB affecting thousands of people in Papua New Guinea, O’Neill said the Government was increasing investment in healthcare infrastructure and medical staff to turn the tide against TB.
We agree with the Prime Minister that every citizen must do his or her part to rid our country of this dreaded disease, which is killing both young and old people.
TB is a communicable disease that can be spread in various ways, including coughing and spitting. That popular habit of chewing and spitting betel nut is a sure way of spreading TB if one is infected by the disease.
TB is also preventable and it comes down to cleanliness and hygiene, which involves simple actions such as always covering your mouth when you cough and always wash your hands.
Moreover, people should help their family members who are taking TB medicine to ensure they take their full course of drugs.
Doctors warn that if TB patients do not take their full course of medicine, they risk becoming drug resistant.
While the health authorities are concerned about TB patients absconding from taking their medicines, there is another concern about people opting for alternative remedies.
Those in medical profession will always be quick to alert the public against using alternative or traditional herbal remedies which have never been scientifically tested for their efficacy and effects on the human body.
Understandably, the scientific mind would only encourage the use of that which has been methodically proven and tested to work on ailments with the least of side effects.
By and large, traditional or alternative medicines used in the country are basically home-made with the use of very basic apparatus.  The packaging is not as elegant as factory made products and the conditions under which they are concocted are not known and open to conjecture.
The producers and promoters are heavily dependent on word of mouth testimonies of those who have been healed by using of their products.
People have been told to be wary of these untested alternative remedies or are quite suspicious about them, however effective they might be.
However, they might not necessarily have the reservations about factory made and professionally packaged drugs. Some brands have been around for a long time and have won the public’s confidence.
To the simple Papua New Guinean mind, the anti-biotic Amoxicillin is the panacea for a number of health conditions. Whether it is bought with a prescription at a certified drug store or from the street seller, it is still Amoxicillin and must work, never mind the fine print on the content.
Herein lies the danger and grave risk alluded to in a health inspectors meeting last year. The meeting was told of a rise in illegal pharmaceutical activities.
The said illegal pharmaceutical activities were carried out by both illegal and legally registered companies in the country.
These criminal activities include wrong labelling of drugs and counterfeit and substandard medicines.
Pharmaceutical crime poses a grave danger to public health.  Falsifying medicines undermine people’s faith in the health care system, while threatening the lives of the most vulnerable members of society.
The proliferation of substandard drugs or counterfeits of known brands is a clear indication of a lack of faith in the public health system or inability to access public health services.
The easy access to drugs openly sold on shops shelves or streets is easier and more convenient that spending hours in long queues at public health facilities.
Where traditional cures have been found to be effective, these should be vigorously promoted throughout the country so people do not resort to products that are illegally produced and falsely packaged and subject them to grave health risks than where they do use local proven and tested local remedies.
This calls for the Government to strictly regulate the pharmaceutical industry and allowing only reputable companies to supply the public health system and have those supplies regularly inspected.