Central SA
NW Dept. of Health concerned with TB in informal settlements─── LUCKY NKUYANE 16:42 Mon, 25 Mar 2019
The North West Department of Health says its effort in trying to address Tuberculosis (TB) in the province's informal settlements remains one of the provincial department’s biggest challenges.
This is according departmental spokesperson, Tebogo Lekgethwane, who says this as the number of people contracting and dying of the disease has seen a spike in recent years in such areas due to them defaulting on their medication.
He says the department has realized a significant decline in the number of patients adhering to their treatment plan with 18.6%. He says comparing the 2016/17 adherence of 86.9% this now stands at about 78.5% of those sticking to their treatment.
He adds that the department is battling keep track on the movement of patients from the informal settlement as they do not stay for long in one location.
Lekgethwane says the death rate recorded in the 2016/17 was at 4.2% while now this has increased to 10.2% in the 2017/18.
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