People in Jiwaka province suffer many types of violence; inter-community violence, sexual and gender-based violence, domestic violence, election-related violence, and violence due to sorcery accusations. Compounding people’s suffering is the lack of healthcare services in remote and rural areas.
In June 2024 our teams began working on a community-based approach to healthcare by strengthening the capacity of existing services. We are also looking to establish a functioning service to provide care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence by bolstering the referral and protection system.
Data and information from the International Activity Report 2023.
Our teams collaborated with the national TB programme in two facilities in Port Moresby, the capital: at Gerehu hospital from 2015 and at Six Mile clinic from 2022, providing care to patients with drug-sensitive TB (DS-TB) and harder-to-cure, drug-resistant forms of the disease (DR-TB).
In a bid to prevent the spread of the disease, we conducted our community-based outreach and health promotion work in high-risk areas – especially in low-income and densely populated neighbourhoods with poor sanitation. Our teams also offered preventive TB treatment to close contacts of confirmed DS-TB patients.
Throughout the years, our teams worked with local health authorities and their staff to consolidate the technical capacity of TB treatment in these areas. In 2023, as the project reached its objectives of setting up a comprehensive system of TB prevention, early detection, treatment and patient follow-up, we gradually handed it over to the provincial health authority.
Local health workers and doctors were trained in specific testing procedures, while laboratory technicians were taught how to use the sophisticated GeneXpert molecular testing machine for rapid diagnosis. Patient education, counselling and outreach activities were also part of this capacity-building endeavour.
In addition, to contribute to research on TB diagnosis worldwide, MSF carried out a study comparing the performance of ultrasound to chest X-ray in the diagnosis of pulmonary TB. If results are comparable, they would demonstrate easier and more efficient implementation in resource-limited settings.
IN 2023
