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Health department looks to halve tuberculosis rates

Vice Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung, second left, and other guests yesterday pop balloons with the word Chinese characters for ``tuberculosis'' on them to mark World Tuberculosis Day, which is commemorated today. PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES

Today is World Tuberculosis day, and although Taiwan is not a member of the WHO, Department of Health officials say the nation has responded to the WHO's Global Plan to Stop TB by pledging to cut TB rates in Taiwan by half by 2015.

"We are well on track to achieving our goals," said Yang Shih-yan (揚世仰) of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday.

Yang made the remarks at an event hosted by the CDC that was aimed at raising awareness about the disease that is still the deadliest infectious killer in Taiwan. The event was also held in part to applaud the work of the nation's TB outreach workers.

Although TB disproportionately affects marginalized segments of society such as the homeless, nobody is safe from the disease.

"When I got infected with TB 10 years ago, I thought it was a bad bout of flu," said former head of the Hakka Affairs Council Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉), "but when I started coughing up blood and went to the doctors again, it turned out to be tuberculosis."

A lengthy course of pharmaceutical treatment is necessary to cure tuberculosis, CDC officials said.

If the drugs are not taken on a daily basis until long after patients no longer experience symptoms, TB can return.

Drug-resistant strains of the disease also could emerge, they added.

In order to ensure that patients take their drugs as instructed, there are more than 400 TB outreach workers nationwide who deliver the drugs to the patients daily and do not leave until they verify that the pills have been taken.

This approach is called Directly Observed Treatment Short courses, or DOTS.

"If one of my clients is homeless, then it is my job to go to all the parks and other regular hangouts until I find him," said outreach worker Hung Hui-wen (洪惠文).

"I have about 10 clients to see each day, and I try to chat a little bit and explain to them why it is important to take their pills in addition to bringing them their medication," Hung said.

A TB patient's regimen varies, said Hung, and they might have to take from eight to 15 pills depending on their condition.

"More than 80 percent of Taiwan's tuberculosis patients have been assigned DOTS outreach workers," said Yang, "I see no reason why Taiwan will not accomplish its goal of cutting TB by half by 2015."
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