“Lift up your sleeve and show us your arm,” is the request to all displaced children from volunteers who are fanning out across the camps in Vavuniya.
For, an intensive programme has already been implemented not only to prevent but also control tuberculosis (TB) for which congestion and poor nutrition would be the ideal spreading grounds. The arms will be checked for the BCG vaccination -- administered to prevent TB complications in childhood – which leaves a scar, making the identification of those vaccinated easy.
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| The team from the National TB Programme making people aware about the disease |
“All those children under five years old who don’t have the scar will be vaccinated,” says the Director of the National Programme for TB Control and Chest Diseases, Dr. Sunil De Alwis, explaining that those above five will be observed and screened for any signs of the disease.
The unique feature in the special anti-TB programme being implemented in the camps in Vavuniya is that the volunteers who will do the job at ground level are themselves displaced but have been mobilized because they are health personnel such as nurses, pharmacists, microscopists, The Sunday Times learns.
Screening children is just one prong of the programme, stresses Dr. De Alwis, adding that the volunteers who have been provided special T-shirts and caps, are also compiling a ‘TB suspect register’ into which have fallen 20 of the displaced people. “We estimate that there may be about 100 suspect TB cases among the internally displaced people because they have had poor nutrition and facilities while living in the uncleared areas.”
Each volunteer has been allocated a block of homes of about 100-150. They are visiting the displaced families and taking down all details including names, ages and also the addresses of their previous homes. Another crucial factor that will be found out is whether they are on TB treatment or have defaulted, it is learnt.
Anyone who has had a cough for three weeks will also be identified by the volunteers and referred to the District TB Officer who will screen them and take sputum specimens for checking under a microscope, explained Dr. De Alwis who visited the camps in early May with a medical team including doctors from Sabaragamuwa.
“The 11 consultant chest physicians along with medial teams will go to Vavuniya on rotation. Two microscopes have already been sent and microscopic centres set up within the camps while moves are underway to recruit two TB assistants for each of the four camp zones to help the District TB Officer,” he said adding that big flow charts are being put up in Tamil with advice not only for the internally-displaced people but also health personnel as to what they should do if they think someone is having TB.
Meanwhile, plans are underway to upgrade the Chettikulam District Hospital to a Base Hospital, said Dr. De Alwis, adding that they are envisaging the expansion of the 20-bed TB ward, hopefully with funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM). “An isolation area will also be demarcated and X-ray facilities provided,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chest clinics at Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu are to be upgraded as well. |
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