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Complacency should be avoided in TB

Written by Cherelle Jackson
Friday, 28 March 2008
The complacency of Samoan people with the symptoms of tuberculosis (TB) is an obstacle to the fight against the disease locally. This is according to the Representative of World Health Organization (WHO) to Samoa Dr. Kevin Palmer. “In the past TB has been a real problem in Samoa, down to the point where maybe people are a little more complacent and that they don’t really take heed when they should, when they have have a persistent cough, a fever or night fever,” Palmer said. The WHO Representative spoke to Newsline after the local commemoration of TB Day at the Ministry of Health. Commemorated internationally on Monday, TB day serves as an awareness campaign for the disease. WHO records that an estimated 1.5 million people died from TB in 2006. In addition, another 200,000 people with HIV died from HIV-associated TB. According to the Global Tuberculosis Control 2008 between 2001 to 2005, the average rate at which new TB cases were detected was increasing by 6% per year. In Samoa the detection rate is 70% and this according to Palmer should not be the final rate. “Basically we are trying to get people to do a little bit more and not be happy with 70% detection rate, that if we are going to eliminate the disease then were going to do better than 70%,” he told Newsline. Palmer believes that there are indeed more cases to be detected and that Samoa is equipped with the personnel, knowledge and systems in place to ensure that the detection rate increases. “In a community like Samoa, we should be able to detect TB quite easily, you have a good health coverage, as long as the Nurses and Doctors are aware and when they have a case that looks like TB then they refer them for samples, and not to say that they have enough this month and not send anymore,” Palmer said. Currently Samoa is placed on average in terms of TB worldwide. “It is not high its not low, the sitting in general is relatively low, I think its because of the way we live out in the open houses, not a lot of people crowding together, we tend to find it more in the big cities, this is where TB comes in rapidly,” he said. In Samoa and other Pacific islands community awareness and spreading the appropriate knowledge on TB are key to curbing the problem. “There should be more community awareness on the issue. Awareness is important and that is why WHO has a TB day to try and raise awareness,” Palmer said. “This time its partnership because partnership is important, community partnership, NGO partnership, to try and keep this awareness level up,” he added. As part of the commitment the Global Fund in addition to support by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, WHO and other regional and international health stakeholders have invested in Samoa efforts to create more awareness about TB. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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