MEDICAL officials met at a workshop earlier this month at the Yangon headquarters of National Tuberculosis Program to finalise plans for a comprehensive range of activities to combat the disease.

The activities include TB counselling guidelines, a counselling training guidebook and a work plan.

The workshop, from July 2 to 4, was organised by the Department of Health, the World Health Organisation and the Japanese international aid agency, JICA, and attended by medical officials from many non government organisations.

The participants discussed information to be included in the draft counselling guidelines, which were compiled last year with the assistance of JICA.

The WHO’s national consultant for TB, Dr Ye Myint, said the need for the guidelines had been made more urgent because of threat posed by the emergence of multi-drug resistant cases of the disease.

The workshop also discussed information to be included in the guidebook on TB counselling, which will be used to train staff at the National Tuberculosis Program and other health care workers.

Dr Ye Myint said counselling was a special task requiring special skills.
“It is frequently used in the public health services but people are still confusing counselling with health education,” he said.

A WHO specialist on TB based in Myanmar, Dr Hans Kluge, told the workshop it was important to have precise counselling guidelines because they contribute to better relationships between health care workers and those with the disease.

JICA’s national consultant for TB, Dr Aye Htun, said the agency will print counselling training guidebooks for use in Yangon and Mandalay divisions, while the WHO will be responsible for training in the other states and divisions.
As well as helping TB patients to deal with social problems arising from the disease, proper counselling would also encourage them to seek appropriate treatment and undergo regular sputum tests and contribute to help prevent drug resistant cases, he said.

“Tuberculosis is spreading because people with symptoms of the disease are delaying having a sputum examination and are relying on self-treatment,” said Dr Aye Htun.