A non-government organisation dealing with TB cases in the Central province says an apparent breakdown in administering drugs to TB patients has resulted in an increase of Multi Drug Resistant TB cases.
Senior Child Fund Health Officer, Olive Oa, says that statistics indicate there has been a rise in MDR TB.
The organisation is now working with authorities to train volunteers to help with identifying TB patients, and help them complete their medication.
The workshop facilitated by Child Fund PNG is an effort to train volunteers who are village-based to act as a monitoring mechanism so TB patients can complete their medication.
The participants are from the Kairuku District. These volunteers now have a huge task to help minimise and stop the spread of TB in their communities.
Kairuku District is not the only district seeing the spread of Tuberculosis, other districts in Central have similar statistics or much worse.
Child Fund PNG has trained 60 volunteers and aims for more similar training.
Avia Roy is one of the participants who lost her husband and a son after contracting TB.
Avia is one of the many participants who believe more awareness and knowledge of identifying TB will be the key factors in ending the killer disease.
The three-day training workshop has ended, with plans of carrying out similar training in other parts of Central Province.
