Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Director-TB and Leprosy in the Disease Control Unit, Dr Llang Maama says HIV infected people are the most vulnerable to catching Tuberculosis (TB). She said this has become one of the prominent health problems in Lesotho.
Dr Llang said this at the ministry of health breakfast meeting with the media last week Friday whereby the subject matter was; the current TB and HIV status in the country.
As well as how media can contribute in increasing knowledge to influence behavioral change on the two issues within the communities. Referring to the global TB situation, Dr Maama said HIV infected people are the most vulnerable to TB as “an estimated 11% of incident TB cases in 2015” were HIV positive.
The proportion she said was highest in countries in World Health Organization (WHO) African region, and exceed 50% in parts of Southern Africa “TB is a leading killer of HIV –positive people, in 2015, one in three HIV deaths is due to TB,” she revealed
In Lesotho she said the proportion of TB patients with known HIV status was 94.2 % in 2016, 72.5% for HIV positive among TB patients with known status while the proportion of children under 15 with TB of all classes was 3.3% and 1.4% for children under five with TB of all classes.
She therefore urged people to keep testing for Tuberculosis and circulates prevention messages that include allowance of ventilation in confined places as it is caused by bacteria that spread from person to person through microscopic droplets released into the air.
“This can happen when someone with the untreated, active form of tuberculosis coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs or sings and one within the range breathes in and catches the bacteria,” she said.
Meanwhile, TB & HIV technical advisor ministry of health Dr Puleng Ramataboee said chances of TB infections among people stand at 20-30%. She said this is something that people should have knowledge on so as to prevent the disease. She further stated that people should continually test for both TB and HIV as they go together and are both deadly.
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