Luanda — Angolan minister of Health, José Van-Dúnem, Wednesday here defended the permanent supervision of clinical laboratories, for greater possibility of access to combat against tuberculosis.

The minister said this during the opening of National Symposium on Tuberculosis, aimed at, among other goals, presenting the strategic plan for the coming five years and the new technical manual of disease.

After calling for the need of major integration of health services with view to facilitate an early diagnosis, the minister said that the difficulty to achieve the efficiency of Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) is in the articulation of several levels.

He said that Angola has no any case of resistance of the current tuberculosis and the most important is to make good use of available medicines to delay the disease.

In her turn, the director of National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP), Conceição Palma, stated that over the last three years the cases tend to increase, as the example, she noted, the number increased from 38,317, in 2005, to 42,383, in 2007.

For this purpose she called for the increase of the number of laboratories to meet the demand.

The official mentioned, as example, Luanda province that has 17 laboratories, instead of 48, so that each cater for 150,000 people.

Luanda and Benguela provinces have 50 percent of the cases of tuberculosis, whereas the coverage within Angolan population is 53 percent, stressed the official who blamed the increase of the cases of disease on alcoholics, malnutrition, HIV/AIDS and promiscuity.