According to a second coordination meeting held at the fourth floor of Yangon Region Public Health Department yesterday the World Tuberculosis Day will be held grandiosely in South Dagon Township Hall, Yangon.
“For the public and workers in factories of South Dagon to know more about TB and to expose more about TB and HIV South Dagon Hluttaw representative and Industrial Zone chairman were invited to coordinate on obtaining public health services” said Yangon Region Public Health Department Deputy Region Head Dr. Htay Lwin.
31,244 TB patients were treated in Yangon Region during 2017. Countrywide, there were about 150,000 ordinary TB patients. Out of the yearly 8,000 to ten thousand MDR-TB (Multi drug-resistant tuberculosis) patients, 50 per cent are in Yangon Region and Ministry of Health and Sports is conducting TB eradication program as a project.
The ten townships in Yangon where there are the most outbreak of TB include Hlinethaya, South Dagon, Dagon (East), North Dagon, Dagon Seikkan, Thakayta and Thingangyun and last year’s World Tuberculosis Day was held together with opening ceremony of a TB eradication building in Aung San, Insein Township. It was conducted with departmental staffs and this year, under the guidance of the Union Minister, it will be conducted together with the public so that the public themselves participate and cooperate in the health care work.
TB spreads through air and even though providing of information and survey work on TB were conducted by Yangon Region Health Department on public travelling on public transports and despite provision of free treatment in hospitals and clinics, patients were not coming for treatment. Despite mobile clinics providing field treatment to patients in disease prone factory, work sites, wards and villages, there remains patients who were not treated so this time the health department fights the TB together with the people for the first time on the World TB Day to raise awareness about TB.
In Yangon Region, the TB infection is mostly found in the most populated Hlinethaya Township and the second most is in South Dagon Township. That is why this year World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March will be held in the township hall of South Dagon Township where there are many factories and workshops. Artistes will provide entertainment and game programs.
The day’s coordination meeting was attended by Yangon Region Public Health Department head, South Dagon Township Hluttaw representative, township health officers from townships, public health officers, INGOs, NGOs, CSOs, entities and organisations participating in the World Tuberculosis Day.—Than Htike
(Translated by Zaw Min)
