Health Minister Dr. Ifereimi Waqainabete says an action plan will be formulated and implemented to reduce tuberculosis to 10 to 20 incident cases per 100,000 people as part of Fiji’s National TB Control Program.
He made these comments at the recent Asia‑Pacific Parliamentarian Forum on Global Health in Nadi adding the action plan had a targeted time frame of three to five years.
The Health Minister says the plan will focus on intensive control interventions among high‑risk groups such as people living with HIV, diabetes and the contacts of known TB cases, in high burden and hard to reach communities.
Dr Waqainabete adds screening and prophylactic treatment of Latent TB Infection will be prioritized.
He says as the Ministry drives towards supporting the End TB Strategy and endeavors to ensure all TB cases are well supported by community models of care.
Dr. Waqainabete adds this was compared to hospitalized phases of treatment reflected in the low occupancy rates and bed states in mostly the Northern and Central Division’s Directly Observed Treatment Supervision centres at Labasa Hospital and PJ Twomey Hospital.
The Minster said that with commitment from the Fijian Government driving concerted and cohesive effort amongst all stakeholders to achieve its action plan, the Fiji TB control program intends to work hard in the coming three years to achieve its elimination targets.
Fiji is currently categorized as a low TB burden country.
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