Gelukspan-The North West Department of Health will open a Multi Drug Resistance (MDR) Tuberculosis (TB) Unit at Gelukspan Hospital on Thursday, 06 March 2014.

The unit forms part of decentralization of MDR TB treatment model aimed at making TB treatment accessible and closer to communities.

“MDR TB expertise were initially centralised in Tshepong/Klerksdorp Hospital Complex but a need to decentralise arose following the installation of Gene Xpert machine in various hospitals across the province” departmental spokesperson Tebogo Lekgethwane said. 

The Gene Xpert is a new test for tuberculosis. It can find out if a person is infected with TB within two hours and also if the TB bacterium of the person has resistance to one of the common TB drugs.

“With the use of new technology more people are now being diagnosed with TB. A number of MDR TB cases increased from 375 in 2012 to 570 in 2013. The new cases far exceed bed capacity of 76 beds at Klerksdorp/ Tshepong Hospital Complex’s MDR TB Unit” Lekgethwane said.

MEC Dr. Magome Masike will deliver a keynote address.

Details are as follows:

Date    :Thursday, 06 March 2013

Venue: Gelukspan Hospital

Time  10h00

STATISTICS ABOUT TB IN THE NORTH WEST PROVINCE:

∙About 19000 patients are currently on TB treatment.
∙TB related deaths decreased from 8.2% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2012
∙North West Province has cured three Extreme Drug Resistance (XDR) TB patients. The condition was deemed impossible to cure
∙A number of MDR TB cases increased from 375 in 2012 to 570 in 2013
∙A number of  XDR TB cases increased from four in 2012 to 12 in 2014.
∙TB defaulter rate improved from 9, 2% in 2012 to 7,2% in 2013. This can be attributed to community health worker programme.
∙Taung Hospital MDR TB Unit is fully functional. The unit forms part MDR TB decentralization model. So far more than 20 patients have been initiated at the facility and 15 patients were completely cured.
∙120 health care workers trained on  MDR  TB decentralization model
∙13 more facilities have been earmarked for MDR TB decentralization model.-TDN
Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_