A medical practitioner in Kabompo district in North-Western Province has called for intensified sensitisation in communities in order to stop social stigmatisation against Tuberculosis (TB) patients in the district.
Loloma Mission Hospital Sister-In-Charge, Marion Ronald, made the call during the commemoration of the World TB Day held at Manyinga in Kabompo.
Sister Ronald said high levels of social stigmatisation against TB patients in Kabompo district were contributing to poor adherence to drugs instructions by TB patients.
She called on local chiefs and village headmen to partner with government and its cooperating partners in sensitising communities against social stigma against TB patients.
She thanked the government for seconding a government medical doctor to Loloma mission hospital.
Sister Ronald further appealed to government to consistently supply TB drugs to rural health centres in the district.
She said in the last quarter of last year, the Loloma mission hospital had 40 TB patients.
stigma sometimes can come as the result of poor counselling skiils by some health workers who lack confidentiality.The govt sld train more counsellors from recognised counselling institutions.
TB is infectious and airbone. So don’t misclassify precautionery steps as stigma. People need not come in close contact with TB patients, whether the TB is HIV related or not. It was like that before the HIV epidemic and it should remain so today and tommorrow.
TB can be Domant and not infectious for a long time but can be Dominant at a certain point when your body defence mechanisim is reduced due to any cause, when the bacilli has became active the patient will or will not have signs and symptoms of TB, before they are diagnised with TB through a sputum exam they are with us shairing same utensils,kissing and coughing around, then at a certain point when they became weak and are diagnised with TB we start running away from them, this is pointless. We have to treat them the same but jst follow some precautions as advised by a health worker. TB in some cases becames not infectious after the patient has been on treatment(DOTS)for about 2 weeks.
#3. How on earth do you expect ordinary folk to tell which stage the TB is at? Proper practice should be isolation during the period that the learned medics say the TB is active. That was practiced before the dawn of HIV and was not considered stigma. Apropriate medical action is not equal to stigma! When cholera hits, isolation occurs. Is that stigma? Many a person in Zambian communities have been treated for TB, cured and not stigmatized after that.
You are right#4, but the issue of total isolation is slowly fading out, but jst few restrictions are set to this particular patient if they are ambulant which must be followed e.g proper disposal of sputum, do you know why? because if it means taking the TB all close friends & relatives would have acquired the infection already before the diagnosis was made coz they were in close contact.The best thing to do is ecourage him to take drugs& eat a mixed diet, take the babies for preventive treatment and all the contacts can do some investigations for TB than running away.This ETB has been strongly isociated with HIV infection so the way we handle our well informed clients should matter.
Yes,continue smearing feces of ignorance at each other, when experts comment on issues you want to retort back like you know it all. May ignorance and stubbornness sort you out.
#6, why the rant man? Quite uncalled for. #1 to 5 have had a very informative dialogue here. mr. nice seems well informed while calib et al have good points as well. The key thing everyone needs to remember is prevetion is better than cure.
Don’t insult people just for the sake of it.
i believe as human being we learn from each other and from our mistakes, as for you #6, you believe in insults which you think can help reduce stigma and disrimination on our clients, pliz keep it up.