NORTH / HEALTHCARE

Volunteer network set up for TB patients

The Public Health Ministry has set up a network of volunteers in the North to ensure tuberculosis patients complete their full course of medication. The volunteers, all former TB patients themselves, will keep in contact with those with the disease to check on their medication intake, give advice should there be any side effects as well as giving moral support.

The pilot programme, launched in Chiang Mai's San Pa Tong and Saraphi districts in October last year, has gone well, according to the ministry.

Dr Daranee Viriyakijja, a TB expert at the Disease Control Department, said tuberculosis has become an alarming health threat with an average of 91,000 new cases reported each year. About 13% of TB patients last year were people who tested positive for HIV/Aids.

She said most of the TB cases, totalling 73%, received proper treatment last year. However, some 6% of them were slow to recover as they failed to complete the full dosage of anti-TB drugs.

So far, patients in the North, many of whom are alien workers or ethnic minorities from hilltribes, have been looked after by family members who are not trained for the job. Chiang Mai public health deputy chief Surasingh Virutaratna said hospitals in the North, where the HIV infection rate is the highest in the country, came up with the idea of having volunteers monitor patients.

General News
Bangkok Post
Saturday January 27, 2007