The seventy-second session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific will discuss major health issues relevant to the Region including school health, primary health care, COVID-19, tuberculosis, and traditional and complementary medicine. This story is part of a series examining how each health topic affects individuals in the Western Pacific.
When Josephine Jim was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a form of TB caused by bacteria that are resistant to treatment with at least two of the most powerful first-line anti-TB medication, isoniazid and rifampicin, her family and community in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, were terrified.
Afraid of TB, they did not visit the 19-year-old student in hospital and shunned her when she returned to her home.
“When I came home, they wouldn’t sit with me,” she said tearfully. “They didn’t come near me. They separated my plate, cup and utensils, so that I didn’t pass the disease on to them. They stayed far away from me.
“I tried to tell them, ‘TB spreads through the air, when I cough, and I know how it spreads. So, you don’t have to be afraid of me’.” Watch Josephine Jim share her story.
Ms Jim began responding to the treatment. She is on directly observed treatment (DOT), helping her stay motivated throughout the long treatment process.
“I started feeling better after I started the medication. I started putting some weight back on and I don’t look sick. I stopped getting short of breath, I felt well again,” she said.
Support was crucial, Ms Jim said.
“Agatha [a volunteer health assistant] helps me. She makes sure I go every day to get my medicine. Partners also help us with food and bus fare. That helps a lot. It motivates us to take the medicine.”
She is aware of additional risks she faces during the coronavirus pandemic.
“With this COVID-19 pandemic, because I have TB, I have to be extra careful. If I get COVID-19, it won’t be good because I already have an illness. So, to protect myself, I wear a mask everywhere I go.”
Ms Jim is now looking to the future with hope.
“I found out that you can fight TB. It’s not the end of your life. If you take your medicine properly, you can go back to your former self.
“You can still reach for your dreams. For me, I want to go back and finish school. As long as you take your medicine, you will be all right.”
Ms Jim is one of an estimated 1.8 million people who fall ill with TB each year in the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region. In 2020, an estimated 93 000 people died from TB in the Region. It is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.
The draft Regional Framework to End TB in the Western Pacific (2021–2030), which will be deliberated at this year’s Regional Committee session, provides strategic guidance and context for the Region to achieve the 2030 global goals to reduce TB incidence and deaths and to ensure people like Ms Jim receive the care and support they need.
To implement the End TB Strategy, WHO provides technical assistance to national programmes to strengthen essential TB functions, including ensuring equitable people-centred TB services, like early diagnosis and quality care with state-of-the-art technologies for vulnerable populations.
WHO supports countries in strengthening their health system foundations by enhancing collaboration with other health programmes, establishing national-level research networks, and ensuring meaningful participation of community and civil society organizations.
Since weak collaboration between different sectors prevents the necessary multisectoral actions needed to address poverty, undernutrition and other TB risk factors, WHO promotes health beyond the health sector to enhance social protection mechanisms and facilitate whole-of government and whole-of-society approaches in national TB responses.
To address the overarching management and governance challenges, WHO supports countries to be able to sustain adequate financing for TB, translate policy into practice and manage TB in emergency situations.
WHO is also supporting countries to develop and implement national strategic plans for TB, and all levels of the Organization (global, regional and country offices) are working as one in a coordinated effort to end TB.