TB control programme to increase case findings

... by 2015
Appiadu (Ash), Oct. 6, GNA - The National Tuberculosis Control Programme is to increase case findings from the 1993 level of 25 percent to 55 percent by 2015 and also maintain a defaulter rate of below 10 percent by 2015.

Mrs Anowuo Ohemeng Ababio, a senior nutrition officer at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), said TB continued to be a major public health problem.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs and people of Appiadu, near Kumasi, on Sunday, she said the TB control programme has since 1995 moved into all the ten regions.
She announced that 38 door centres in both the public and private health institutions had been established in the Kumasi metropolis for the free treatment of the disease and that the centres had all been well-equipped to diagnose, treat and refer chronic or very serious cases to the KATH.
Mrs Ohemeng Ababio said as part of the strategy to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate due to TB to a level that it would no longer pose a public health problem, most drug and chemical sellers were being trained to treat the disease, and refer serious cases to the hospitals.
She said four districts, which shared common boundaries with Kumasi had been equipped to also diagnose, treat and refer serious cases to KATH. They are Kwabre, Ejisu-Juaben, Atwima and Bosomtwe-Atwima-Kwanwoma.
Miss Susana Baffour Awuah, TB Co-ordinator for Asokwa Sub-metro, asked people not to shun TB patients since it was a major draw back to the control and eradication of the disease.