By Tendai Dhliwayo
GAUTENG'S department of health is concerned with the increase in the number of deaths from Tuberculosis (TB), which have shot up from 9 % to 11% during the period 2001 to 2002.
This is one of the issues raised by health MEC, Gwen Ramokgopa, when unveiling her department's quarterly review on Tuesday.
However, Ramokgopa said the TB control programme is having a positive impact. According to her, the cure rate has increased from 67% in 2000 to 68% and 70% in 2001 and 2002, respectively.
"The number of people interrupting their treatment has decreased from 17% to 13%. The aim is to bring this down to 10 %."
From 14 February to the World Tuberculosis Day on 23 March, the department will embark on visits to TB hotspots in the province to raise public awareness about the dangers of drug resistance that may occur as a result of treatment interruption.
Ramokgopa also noted the department's progress especially on programmes to curb the spread of HIV/Aids, more so the prevention of mother to child transmission programme that has been implemented in all hospitals as well as 90% of the community health centres.
"The preventative drug treatment for rape survivors (Post Exposure Prophylaxis), which started in June last year, has now been rolled out in all 26 trauma centres throughout the province," said Ramokgopa. She added that voluntary counselling and testing sites stand at 41 and 241 lay counsellors and 173 professional health workers have received training in counselling and testing.
The MEC hailed the success of the World Aids Day, saying over 10 000 trained volunteers from NGOs, youth and other community organisations disseminated Aids information to nearly 4,6 million people.
Though the department has recorded a number of successes, there are also challenges being faced, according to the MEC. One of the challenges is the projected over-expenditure by the end of the financial year.
Ramokgopa said an over expenditure of R130 million is due to the devaluation of the rand and inflation, which has pushed the prices of food and medicines high.
But despite these shortfalls, Ramokgopa said that revenue collection has shown significant improvement with a total of R111.1 million being collected from April to December last year.
"Most of this money is generated from patient fees and the department has embarked on initiatives that will further improve revenue collection. The money collected above target will be used to improve services in hospitals and clinics," said Ramokgopa.
