Free State TB campaign working well

2011-03-23 13:27

Bloemfontein - The Free State health department's campaign of sending officials into communities to find TB and HIV/Aids patients was working well, officials said on Wednesday.

The pilot HCT (HIV counselling and testing) campaign could be the new "modus operandi of primary healthcare" in the Free State, head of the province's health department Sipho Kabane told reporters.

It involved seeking out, testing and counselling former patients, their relatives and friends. Patients giving wrong addresses at hospital while receiving treatment, or moving were the main obstacles facing the campaign.

Provincial Health MEC Fezi Ngubentombi said the Free State recorded more than 21 000 tuberculosis cases in 2009, with the most "burdened" area the Motheo district, which was the greater Bloemfontein-Botshabelo-Thaba Nchu region and surrounds.

Figures released indicate that out of 2 378 TB cases detected in Motheo in 2009, 1 607 were cured. A total of 145 patients defaulted on their treatment.

Ngubentombi said the cure rate in the Motheo area indicated the Free State was doing well in curbing the disease. The campaign would be extended into other TB areas in the province.

A new TB treatment hospital with 45 beds would be opened in the Welkom area this week.

The province currently had 350 patients receiving treatment for multi-drug-resistant TB, and seven extreme-drug-resistant TB cases.

- SAPA