Tuberculosis killing PNG children

Health NGO warns of devastating cost of inaction

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – The scourge of tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea is worse than previously thought and is having a particularly devastating effect on the children of PNG, who make up more than a quarter of all cases.

The disease is also proving harder to treat due to the increasing threat posed by drug resistant TB strains.

A report commissioned by the charity ChildFund is warning that it is children who are at the greatest risk of contracting the most disabling forms of the disease.

ChildFund Australia’s chief executive Nigel Spence said an infection during childhood could mean serious health consequences for the rest of the child’s life.

“In Western countries we tend to think that TB is largely gone or has been eradicated, but that’s far from being the case in countries like PNG,” Spence told the ABC.

“Around 10 per cent of the kids who contract TB – it ends fatally for those kids, they die from the disease.”

Spence added that of the children that do not die, many suffer lifelong disabilities, particularly if TB has infected the child’s bones or parts of their brains.

The cost of inaction will be catastrophic, he said.

PNG has among the highest prevalence rates of tuberculosis in the world, according to the ChildFund report, with 529 cases per 100,000 population.

Spence said that figure was regarded to be an underestimate, due to the high number of cases that are never detected, adding that a more proactive approach needs to be taken.

“The cost of inaction will be catastrophic in terms of lives lost, and astronomical in terms of financial cost,” the ChildFund report says.

However, Spence said that the science and resources were available to ensure that TB was both preventable and curable.

“So the fact that it’s having such prevalence and impact suggests there’s not nearly enough being done to prevent it or get treatment,” he said. - ABC