TB infection rate spurs awareness drive

Aug 25, 2012 News

A relatively high number of persons in Guyana are infected with tuberculosis (TB), with some 800 cases being identified annually. This state of affairs has been described as “a little frightening” by Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud, even as he spoke of measures being implemented to address the potential impact of the disease.
The National TB Programme, through the Guyana Chest Society, has commenced an initiative intended to improve knowledge and attitudes aimed at modifying behaviour related to risk and control of the disease among members of the public.
On Thursday, a forum held at Project Dawn, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, targeted members of the sports fraternity and another discussion at the same venue yesterday zeroed in on faith-based organisations. Similar sessions were held in Mabaruma, Region One, last week, and another is slated for Bartica in the new week.

The sensitisation session in progress.

“The effort that we are making with the Guyana Chest Society is to really get the public involved, because one of the gaps that we found is that, because TB requires intensive and dedicated efforts to treatment, lots of support is needed from the home, the family and the communities,” Dr Persaud noted.
He pointed out that unless the public is sensitised about the disease, the health sector would only be able to provide a partial solution to the problem. The CMO said that with support from Global Fund, efforts are being made to first address stigma and discrimination directed at people with the disease and to help to build communities’ capacity, in terms of knowledge of what they can do to help those infected.
“One of the things that they can do is to help themselves in the sense of protection against TB, and one of the main messages that we want to carry is that you really don’t need to fight against people with this disease. As a community sometimes we end up doing that, for instance in the workplace, because of our own fears of contracting the disease.”
The CMO explained that persons who are infected with TB can be offered a well-tested prophylaxis treatment – isoniazid (INH) – on a daily basis over a period of eight to nine months, which will reduce their chance of developing the disease and becoming sick. According to Dr. Persaud, in Guyana, there is the mistaken belief that once people are infected with TB they can never seem to shake that stigma. However, he asserted that persons can be cured and even return to a normal life.
The local Ministry of Health has had a prolonged battle to address the challenge of TB over the years. In some areas the prevalence had reduced during the 1980s with the introduction of community-based programmes. However, from the mid-1990s, Dr Persaud noted, a resurgence of the disease was observed, particularly associated with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
He said that a large number of persons who are HIV-positive are more susceptible to active TB. This group, he noted, is sometimes a source of a lot more transmissions, since it is perhaps the only opportunistic infection that can easily be transmitted from a HIV-positive person to a another HIV positive person without any sexual contact.
He explained that transmission itself requires a “pretty long exposure”, as long as eight or more hours, to persons who have active TB. With this background, the National Programme, according to Dr Persaud, has been really trying to capture, as far as possible, persons who are symptomatic. Symptoms can include coughing among other signs and such persons, can be placed on a full course of at least six months of combination treatment to help lessen the impact of the disease.