BuaNews (Tshwane)
Gabi Khumalo
3 July 2008
Durban — The Tuberculosis (TB) awareness programme at the Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town seems to be yielding positive results.
The number of offenders and staff coming forward to get tested for TB at the facility has increased.
Speaking at the South African TB Conference in Durban on Wednesday, Desiree Schouw from TB Care Association in South Africa said to date, there were about 4 201 offenders and 570 staff members in Pollsmoor Prison who had come forward get tested and to disclose their status. This was not the case previously.
"In the past, offenders did not inform the authority on their TB status with some using different names on admission," said Ms Schouw.
Another challenge, she said, was the poor treatment adherence by patients and difficulty to implement effective referral systems.
She said in an attempt to address the challenge, a plan of action was put in place with the institution embarking on a TB programme working in partnership with an HIV team.
In implementing a plan of action, 25 interested prison warders participated in the TB and Directly Observed Treatment (DOT) workshops.
Ms Schouw said some of the programme achievements included an increase of offenders reporting to clinics with signs and symptoms of TB and full support from TB and HIV teams.
"Multiple Drug Resistant patients are now isolated and the offenders have a good relationship with staff," she said.
She added that the future plans for the programme included regular TB and HIV awareness sessions as well as developing a referral system and DOT training.
Meanwhile, the Voluntary Counselling Treatment (VCT) TB Integration Project in the Eastern Cape has also seen positive outcomes with 13 151 people being counselled for pre-testing.
Melusi Ndhlalambi from the African Medical and Research foundation said the project aimed to strengthen the quality and capacity of VCT services.
It also focuses on strengthening capacity of service providers to test all HIV patients for TB and TB infected patients for HIV.
"Our emphasis is on strengthening the VCT and integration with TB services," Mr Ndhlalambi said.
He added that the objective was to improve quality and efficiency of VCT services and accuracy of data collection at 71 health facilities.
To date, 806 people who are HIV positive have come forward and tested for TB whilst 690 TB patients have also been tested for HIV.
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