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Maseru district councilors attend TB/HIV
co-management training workshop |
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Councilors from
14 councils around rural areas of Maseru
district attended a three - days TB/HIV
co-management training workshop held in Maseru
on July 2009.
The Maseru district health educator Ms. Thato
Metsing mentioned the objective is to equip the
local authority with necessary skills to be able
to provide health education to their respect
community. After the training the councilors
should be able to identify TB/HIV patients and
refer them to health clinics.
“The community leaders are further expected to
support TB/HIV patients who are already on
treatment to adhere to their medication,” she
added.
Ms. Metsing indicated that initially the health
educators mobilized the councilors to form
community structures responsible for health
education. “At the moment each council has
HIV/TB committee consists of 15 members drawn
from various social clusters which include
teachers, pastors, village health workers,
children, hearboys, private sector/business,
extension worker, police, traditional healers
and chiefs.”
These TB/HIV committees are expected to sit once
a month to discuss on health issues. After the
meeting each committee member is expected to
share the health messages with their respective
social cluster for example the pastor will share
the TB/HIV messages with the congregation,
teachers share with students while children,
heardboys and youths share with their peers.
During the training workshop, the 14 councilors
learnt about Direct Observation Therapy Strategy
(DOTS), types of TB, prevention and treatment.
The participants also learnt about HIV/AIDS
symptoms, prevention, treatment adherence, side
effects of treatment as well as TB/HIV
co-management.
Speaking during the training, Maseru district
TB/HIV Coordinator Mrs. Kholu ‘Mathuto Malefane
mentioned among the common symptoms of HIV are
skin diseases, shingles/herpizoster, boils,
Sexual Transmitted Infections (STIs) and mouth
ulcers.
She appealed to the community leader to
encourage people with TB/HIV symptoms as well as
those experiencing side effects of treatment to
visit health clinics for immediate assistance.
“You should educate people on health issues in
order to discourage myths.”
Similar training workshops for different levels
of community leaders were held in all districts
around the country.
This training workshop is part of development of
capacity for community leaders on Advocacy,
Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM)
project. This project is under Global Fund Round
6 TB grant whose objective is to empower
communities with TB knowledge to provide care
and support to TB patients. One of the project’s
activities is to train community leaders on
TB/HIV co-management. |
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