Ebola may be declining in West Africa, there's a growing threat, this time in Papua New Guinea: tuberculosis.
Speaking in PM with Mark Colvin, Tim Costello, the CEO of World Vision, has shared that more than 25,000 new TB cases have been diagnosed in PNG, and around 400 of these are considered to be drug resistant.
TB is an infectious disease that affects various parts of the body, but usually it hits the lungs. It is caused by a mycobacterium. While the number of cases has been dropping in various parts of the world, it is getting worse in PNG.
TB is prevented via a vaccine and different medications for treatment. However, the bacteria can sometimes become resistant, especially if the patient fails to follow through with the treatment or if he doesn't follow the protocol provided by his doctors.
The spread of TB in PNG should be a concern for Australia especially since the outbreak is found only a few kilometres away from Australia's northern tip, Queensland. What makes the problem even worse, Costello pointed out, is that PNG doesn't have a strong health infrastructure.
He then went on to compare PNG's outbreak with that of Ebola. One of the primary reasons why Ebola has spread in three Western African countries is because of a poor health system in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. This outbreak has eventually killed 9,000 people with at least a hundred cases every week since the beginning of December.
In PNG especially in Daru Township, doctors have already left their jobs because of bad hospital management or because of their own sickness. Around 50% of the population have already been infected by the disease.
Meanwhile, Costello received $18 million from Global Fund as a grant and is intended for treating and combating tuberculosis. It costs as much as $4,000 for medications on regular drug-resistant TB.