Ministry committed to ceasing high costs associated with TB

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The students of Queen Victoria School in Tailevu gets a free screening of TB from Karishma Krishna of Korovou Medical Centre during the World Tuberculosis Day celebration launch at school yesterday. Picture: RAMA

THE Heath Ministry is committed to achieving and ceasing the high costs associated with Tuberculosis (TB) in the country.

In a statement released yesterday, the ministry revealed that in 2017, the data on TB showed that 49 out of every 100,000 Fijians had TB and about four of those infected succumbed to the disease.

The ministry said it was committed to achieving the 2035 Global End-TB Program targets of reducing TB incidence and deaths by 90 per cent and 95 per cent respectively.

Acting Medical Superintendent at Tamavua’s Twomey Hospital, Dr Mike Kama, the risks of airborne transmission of TB were high in environments that were overcrowded and poorly ventilated.

“People with pre-existing HIV and/or diabetes mellitus conditions are at higher risk of developing TB,” Dr Kama said.

He also said that the transmission of TB through ingestion of contaminated cow’s milk had largely been reduced by pasteurisation of milk.

The symptoms of TB include coughing for over weeks weeks, fever, night sweats, weight loss and coughing out blood.

TB is diagnosed by having a chest x-ray and a sputum sample tested for the presence of the bacteria.

With the theme set as “It’s time to end TB in my generation,” the World TB Day commemoration this Friday intends to create and escalate public awareness on TB and reflect on continuous colossal efforts of controlling the disease.

Meanwhile, the World TB day celebration was opened at Queen Victoria School in Tailevu where awareness sessions followed by TB screening for the students was conducted by the officials from the ministry.

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