Chairperson, in line with the ANC's commitment to improve the health status of the population and achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals, interventions are being made to address the challenges of TB and to improve the cure rate from 64% in 2007 to 85% by 2014.
The North West department of health has embarked on a campaign to visit households across the province to treat people living with TB. This programme has proved to be the most effective method of intensifying community education on TB, improving treatment adherence of all diagnosed patients, soliciting treatment support for all patients by their immediate family members and improving TB outcomes. During the campaign people who are infected are immediately put on treatment. The DOH support workers provide service in clinics within their communities, using 28 dedicated vehicles provided by the department to visit TB patients in their homes to ensure they complete their prescribed treatment.
Since this campaign, the department has recorded a drop in the number of people refusing to take treatment from 10,8% in 2009 to 8,6% in 2011. The ANC is pleased with this initiative and believes that if other provinces followed the example of North West, a TB cure rate of 85% by 2014 is achievable.