MALAWI: Catholic Health Commission committed to reduce TB prevalence
Chifundo Mchawa
By Prince Henderson, Communications Officer, ECM
In a bid to reduce morbidity and mortality from Tuberculosis (TB), the Catholic Health Commission (CHC) of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) with funding from Global Fund through Action Aid Malawi has embarked on a two-year project called TB Care Prevention and Community Delivery.
National Project Coordinator, Chifundo Mchawa said the project which is being implemented in three Catholic Dioceses of Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Karonga is aimed at increasing treatment success of bacteriologically confirmed TB cases. “Basically, we want to increase TB diagnosis by bringing TB testing close to the communities. The success of it all lies in working with community volunteers, Health Surveillance Assistants, TB officers in the district hospitals we are working with and also TB Focus Person in the Health Centres,” said Mchawa.
Mchawa said so far volunteers have been trained in infection prevention and at the same time oriented in sputum collection guidelines. They have been trained on active case finding, provision of Directly Observed Treatment Strategy (DOTS) so that at the end they become TB DOT supporters.
According to Mchawa, the role of these volunteers basically is to observe patients on TB treatment as a way of monitoring them for treatment drug adherence purpose
The Catholic Health Commission is excited and overwhelmed with the support both from traditional leaders and communities in all the districts they are working. She said the only challenge they have faced so far in the impact area is of large catchment areas as compared to the number of volunteers who cannot manage to reach out to all the areas.
In a special telephone interview with Karonga District TB Officer, said the project is a welcome development to the district as it will increase community participation and raise awareness on TB related cases. He also said that the project will clear out the stigma on TB where most people think that persons infected with the disease are also infected with HIV/AIDS. He hoped that the volunteers trained by the Catholic Health Commission will be able to link well with the Health Surveillance Assistants and eventually curb TB.
The total cost for the project is about 936,000 USD (approximately MK400,000, 000.00) in two years.
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