‘Fiji has potential to eradicate TB’

WORLD Health Organization Pacific representative Dr Subhash Yadav believes Fiji has the potential to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) as a public health issue before the 2030 global target.

Speaking at a World Tuberculosis Day event at PJ Towmey Hospital in Suva recently, he commended Fiji’s identification and diagnosis program.

“Global TB estimates that countries should be diagnosing 500600 cases every year and Fiji has reached 80 per cent target of those desired targets in finding those cases in 2019,” said Dr Yadav.

“Fiji has also been able to cure 85 per cent of all those diagnosed cases so that, in itself, is quite an achievement.

“However, this year, the team is ready to move forward and work together to overcome and end TB as per the global call for ending TB by 2030.

“We are hoping to work harder in

Fiji and reach that goal even before the global target.”

Dr Yadav said although Fiji had a moderate to low record of TB cases when compared with other countries, it made it all the more important to work harder to cover the last mile.

“This year’s theme ‘The Clock is Ticking’ is just a follow-up on last year’s theme, which was ‘It’s Time to End TB’, is a reminder that TB still continues to be a public health problem around the world and the need to overcome this issue very fast.

“In order to end TB, we need to ensure that the facilities for TB prevention and care, like diagnosis for TB, are available to all people.

“Fiji is fortunate to have newer diagnostic tools like gene experts to diagnose patients so now the only issue is accessibility.”

Dr Yadav said it was impossible to have testing facilities on every island and patients would not be able to travel to Suva for diagnosis so the onus was on health teams to make regular visits for screening.