Africa-Press – Angola. A total of 1,868 cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed, from January to December 2021, in Bengo, a province that in 2020 treated only 359 patients, the head of the Department of Major Endemic Diseases of the Provincial Health Office said yesterday.
Fernanda António, who was speaking on the occasion of the 24th of March, World Tuberculosis Day, stressed that from 2020 to 2021 there was an increase of 1,509 cases, as many patients do not comply with their medication and their family members do not strictly observe the measures. of prevention.
He explained that last year, 47 people died from the disease, 463 continued with treatment, 510 stopped taking their medication for financial reasons, and it was possible to recover a total of 1,358 patients.
The head of the Department of Great Endemic Diseases said that health units in the province do not always have medicines for the treatment of tuberculosis, which has greatly complicated the situation of patients without financial resources to buy drugs.
For this reason, Fernanda António pointed out that a total of 40 patients were transferred to the Dom Alexandre do Nascimento Hospital Complex for Cardiopulmonary Diseases, in Luanda.
He recalled that around 70 percent of patients who come to the Bengo Tuberculosis Treatment Center, which operates in the lobby of the Dande Municipal Hospital, come from the municipality of Cacuaco, province of Luanda. According to the official, this unit has the necessary conditions for accommodation, food and treatment of hospitalized patients.
He stressed that the Health sector in Bengo carries out various awareness-raising actions among the communities, in order to prevent people from becoming infected with the disease, as well as training lectures or seminars, aimed at nurses and supervisors in the area of tuberculosis at the level of six municipalities that make up the province.
Located in the Açucareira area, in Caxito, the Bengo Tuberculosis Treatment Center, with an inpatient capacity for 20 patients, works with three doctors and 12 nurses, and lacks rehabilitation, expansion and equipping works.
“Tuberculosis is a problem that has deserved special attention from the Government of Bengo”, he said, to announce that, in the coming days, the province will have a new smear lab.
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