26 Mar 2021

Papua New Guinea battling TB crisis amid Covid-19 pandemic

From , 6:00 am on 26 March 2021

Papua New Guinea is one of the worst affected countries in the world for tuberculosis.

In 2019, the last year with complete figures, 4,137 people died of TB.

The civil society group, Business For Health, says someone in PNG dies of TB every two hours.

But the problem those fighting this horrific respiratory infection have faced over the past year, and even more so right now, is much of their resource is being repurposed to fight Covid-19.

Don Wiseman has been followi ng this and joins me now, I guess health officials are left with little choice when there is a sudden surge in Covid-19 numbers Don?

Pulmonary Tuberculosis ( TB )  :  Chest x-ray show alveolar infiltration at both lung due to mycobacterium tuberculosis infection

Photo: 123RF