Workshop on tuberculosis for home care givers

35 of our Tlamelang Home Care Givers gathered from 06.07. to 11.07.2014 at the Guest Farm outside Mafikeng for their annual workshop in order to get an update on the management of chronic diseases. They had to brave the icy cold weather conditions in a hall without air conditioner and heaters.

Again Tuberculosis (TB) was one of the main topics. The Department of Health has published new guidelines for this disease this year. The incidence has risen from approximately 200,000 new cases in 1995 to more than 500,000 new cases in 2012. The underlying reason for this increase is the advancing AIDS epidemic because those living with HIV have a weakened immune system and are therefore much more susceptible for Tuberculosis.
Home care givers during a group assignment
 Our home care givers can play an important roll in the fight against Tuberculosis. They can contribute to the early recognition of infectious patients, e.g. by doing a thourough screening for all close contacts of a TB Patient who are living with him/her in the same house hold. The prophylactic treatment with Isoniazid of all children under five years who stay together with a smear positive TB patient prevents many new infections.
An even greater challenge than case finding is to encourage the patients to remain on treatment for at least six months in order to get cured. Wrong perceptions of the disease, ignorance, alcohol abuse and side effects of the TB drugs are important factors that lead to defaulting the treatment. This does not only lead to the flaring up of the infection and to infecting other people but may even result in the threatening development of resistant strains against the standard treatment( Multi Drug Resistance -MDR).
Undine Rauter shows how to do exercises with patients who have a hemiparesis after a stroke
 The greatest challenge for our home care givers is whether they succeed in convincing the patient that the infection with Tuberculosis may go together with HIV Infection. Seven of ten patients who suffer from Tuberculosis are HIV positive. A HIV test is therefore mandatory. According to the new guidelines all patients suffering from TB have to start with livelong Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) within weeks after the initiation of TB Treatment.
Beside these two long term priorities HIV and TB many other topics were discussed during the workshop. Among them was the input from Undine Rauter and her team from Gelukspan how to do exercises with patients who have a hemiparesis after a stroke.
Traditional “braaivleis” at the last evening of the workshop
Workshop on tuberculosis for home care givers
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