Drug resistant TB on the agenda

THE Ministry of Health and Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will bring together international and local experts in a consultative workshop to discuss the public health response to the combined drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and HIV/AIDS crisis in the southern African Region next week.
The aim of the conference starting on October 28, ending on 30th of the same month, is to find practical solutions for Swaziland and the region.
MSF Information Officer Lungile Dlamini said the workshop was an opportunity for regional and local journalists to meet international experts in the TB-HIV field and talk to people living with TB-HIV infection as well as the medical staff who are caring for them. 
The workshop is expected to be officially opened by Prime Minister Dr. Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini, whilst many officials will also be in attendance.
Speakers will include Dr. Mario Raviglione, Director, Stop TB Department, World Health Organisation (WHO) who has had more than 150 articles published in influential health journals and books including TB chapters in the last three editions of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine.
Also on the list is Anthony David Harries, Senior Advisor at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in France and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK.
Alan Whiteside who is Director of Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of Natal will also be a speaker and many others.
Dlamini said the ministry of health and Medicens Sans Frontières teams working in the country had faced numerous challenges in the implementation of a decentralised model of care, suitable to rural settings affected by high drug resistant (DR) TB and HIV prevalence.
“These difficulties call for more innovative solutions that will benefit the majority of TB and HIV patients in need of treatment, adapted to the Swaziland reality; highest HIV prevalence and TB notification rate in the world, limited number of medical doctors and other health care workers, inconsistent HIV and DR TB drug supply, limited capacity for (DR) TB diagnostic, etc.”