‘Rise in TB because of better detection’
FIJI recorded more than 1100 tuberculosis (TB) cases over the past three years, says PJ Towmey Hospital medical superintendent Dr Mike Kama.
He said Fiji recorded 590 cases in 2019, 430 in 2020 and 91 from January 2021 to date.
Dr Kama said the incidence rate for tuberculosis in
2019 was about 59 per 100,000 which reduced in
2020 to 48 per 100,000.
“We are, however, very cautious in the interpretation of this data because the significant decrease in 2020 may be largely due to accessibility, especially active cases of TB who were not able to reach hospital services during the threemonth lockdown period,” he said.
Dr Kama said though Fiji had recorded a significant increase in TB cases, the country was able to detect more cases with the tools that were now available to them.
“The ultimate endeavor is to eliminate TB from the country. This is an important gift we could give to the next generation, to be free from such diseases and, ultimately, be the next more productive generation.
“Tuberculosis is an old disease which has been circulating since the early 1900s and primarily all age groups are affected but more so the more productive age category ranging from 18-50 year-olds.
“This age group presents more cases but we can’t neglect those younger than 18 or older than 50 because trends with that age group have been increasing over the past three years.
“The increase has been more due to our ability to identify cases and detect cases because of the new diagnostic equipment that are available to us.
“Even with the increase in numbers we get out of these age categories, it does not mean that there is an outbreak of TB. It means that we are doing better at detecting cases now.”