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Arduous and lengthy treatment of tuberculosis

Papua New Guinea

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We are working to improve access to screening and treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in Papua New Guinea.

In collaboration with the national TB programme, our team has been scaling up the capacities for screening, diagnosis, treatment initiation and follow-up in Port Moresby’s Gerehu hospital. Mobile teams work in the community to improve patient adherence to treatment.

In Gulf province, our TB programme supports two health centres as well as Kerema general hospital.

Our activities in 2022 in Papua New Guinea

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2022.

MSF in Papua New Guinea in 2021 In Papua New Guinea, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to focus on strengthening the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB), a leading cause of death in the country.
PNG IAR map 2022

In 2022, our teams continued to collaborate with the national TB programme at Gerehu hospital in the capital, Port Moresby, providing care to patients with drug-sensitive TB (DS-TB) and harder to cure, drug-resistant forms of the disease (DR-TB). In April, we finished the construction of a new clinic in Six Mile, in the northeast of the city, dedicated to the care of DR-TB patients.  

In addition, our outreach team carried out home visits for patients who had difficulty accessing our clinics or adhering to treatment. 

In order to reduce the prevalence rate of TB in Port Moresby, which is one of the highest in the world, we conducted community-based case-finding activities to improve early detection. We also gave health talks to provide knowledge about the disease and to explain the importance of adherence to treatment, in areas of the city considered to be at high risk – especially low-income and densely populated neighbourhoods with poor sanitation. Our teams also offered preventive TB treatment to close contacts of confirmed DS-TB patients.  

For patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), we continued to implement all-oral medication regimens, which lead to overall better treatment adherence, as they remove the need for painful daily injections and have fewer severe side effects.  

MSF is always seeking ways to reduce the number of patients interrupting their treatment by facilitating the process, for example by supporting them to take their medication autonomously or assisted by a family member at home.

 

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