BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

WHILE a HIV-positive person has an annual risk of 10 percent of developing TB (tuberculosis), a HIV-negative person is at greatest risk of developing the disease after two years of initial infection.

This is according to Infectious Disease doctor Wei-Ru Lin from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH) in Taiwan.

Moreover, he stressed on the difference between a HIV-negative person having a 10 percent lifetime risk of developing ATBD (Active TB Disease) compared to a 10 percent annual risk for people living with HIV.

Dr Lin explained that a 10 percent lifetime risk means 1 in 10 HIV-negative people with Latent Mtb Infection (LTBI) will develop ATBD over the course of their entire life.

“So if you have a group of 100 HIV negative people with LTBI, 10 will develop ATBD at some point in their lives, meaning that 90 will never get sick with TB. Most of those who develop ATBD do so within the first two years after infection”, he said.

On the other hand, Dr Lin stated that people living with HIV have a 10 percent risk of developing ATBD each year.

He said that from a group of 100 HIV-positive people who have LTBI, 10 of them after the first year will be likely to have developed ATBD.

Dr Lin mentioned that treatment and care for HIV related TB includes HIV testing and counselling, HIV prevention methods, co-trimoxazole preventive therapy (CPT), care and support and antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Dr Lin who is also the Director of Infection Control Center at KMUH along with colleague Ching-Tzu Hung, an Infection Control nurse of KMUH had facilitated a three day Infection Prevention and Control workshop at the Taiwan Health Centre during their brief visit last month.

Participants were thirty-three health workers from the National Referral Hospital (NRH), SINU’s School of Nursing, Honiara City Council (HCC) and Guadalcanal province.

BY GEORGE MANFORD

AUKI

THE United Nation peace programme together with the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace and Malaita province will host a three-day summit on traditional governance and customary land system.

Deputy Director from the Ministry of Traditional Governance, Peace and Ecclesiastical Affairs Mr Genesis Kofana said the idea behind the summit is Malaita province wants to come up with a land law especially to pave way and allow land in Malaita province for development especially for investors.

“We try to understand ourselves on what we have in our traditional systems where we can engage developments.

“As development comes from the western society it will remove some of our laws in the traditional system and some will still remain us our fundamental laws.

“Those fundamental laws of the customary land including tribal ownership and equal sharing for resource owners still remain based on customary land value.

“This is the main concept behind this summit that the Malaita provincial government has agreed upon that all lands in Malaita province must be free for development purposes.

“We will also be looking at creating a legal frame work which includes management, leasing, benefit sharing, and registration so that the same formular will apply to all kinds of development in our lands.

“Some of our senior state’s men will be available during the three days summit.”

“It is enough of talking about land but we need to move forward in development.”

Mr Kofana also highlighted that a group presentation concerning customary land reform will be made during the summit by some local chiefs who visited Fiji last year.

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

A single cough can generate more than 9,000 bacterium, in other words, TB bacteria.

This is according to Dr Wei-Ru Lin, an infectious doctor and Director of Infection Control Centre at Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH).

He gave a lecture about tuberculosis (TB) to a number of local health workers during an Infection Prevention and Control workshop at the Taiwan Health Center (THC) that took place from October 30 to November 1.

Dr Lin expressed that TB is a single-cell organism bacteria, more specifically a mycobacteria of 70 different types.

He said TB can be defined as Latent MTb infection (LTBI) and TB disease.

In relation, Dr Lin expressed that LTBI is TB bacilli (class of bacteria) that is a live dormant inside the lung but does not cause destruction of organs.

TB disease on the other hand is said to be an infectious TB bacilli that results in signs and symptoms of the disease and progressively invades and damages parts of the body.

Health workers were also told that active TB disease may occur in the lungs known as pulmonary TB or in other parts of the body, called extra pulmonary TB.

Some people may experience both cases.

Dr Lin mentioned that the most common and infectious from of TB is Pulmonary TB.

He added that the damage caused by this TB disease sends pus containing TB bacilli into the lungs, which a person with TB may cough up in spit or sputum.

The other TB disease, extra pulmonary TB is normally rare but occurs in up to 40 percent of TB cases among people living with HIV.

Dr Lin went on to speak on the transmission of TB.

He stressed that TB is transmitted through the air and once TB bacteria is inhaled it pushes its way into the lungs.

“Another thing you should know about TB is that it loves oxygen. So it often initially takes root in the oxygen-filled regions of the lungs. To get inside the lungs, TB typically travels through the nose and mouth.”

“Getting there turns out to be fairly simple. A single cough can generate more than 9,000 bacterium. A sneeze can produce triple that amount and propel the germs up to 10 feet away,” said Lin.

He stated that not all individuals who are exposed to the disease can be infected.

In the case of symptoms of TB disease, Dr Lin said due to general infection and immune response, there are symptoms like fever, night sweats, weight loss.

He then spoke about treatment for the disease which includes four drugs that are taken within two phases and both depend on whether or not the patient has been treated before.

Dr Lin said the drugs are Rifampicin (R), Isoniazid (H), Ethambutol (E) and Pyrazinamide (Z) and are the first defence used for drug sensitive tuberculosis.

The first phase is the intensive phase where all four drugs are taken for a 2-3 months period and the second phase is the continuation phase where only two drugs (rifampicin and isoniazid) are taken for 4-6 months.

Dr Lin noted that treatment support such as monitoring side effects, encouraging the patient to keep taking treatment and the provision of extra care needed (psycho-social) is also essential.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

THERE is an increasing number of reported violence on women and young women in Guadalcanal, Malaita and Western provinces, a report from Strongim Bisnis and Oxfam shows.

As a result, women from the selected locations in the research highlight that they are facing ‘lack of opportunities to participate in community’s social economic development’.

The report said women and young women across the three provinces have explicitly identified facing risks of violence.

It is in the course of undertaking unpaid care tasks which is a common form of punishment from husbands or partners for not completing their expectations.

To make it worse, many women interviewed in the research reveal that they are beaten by their husbands.

“Two have died in the past two years; one had a pot of hot rice thrown at her by her husband and this killed her. The other committed suicide because her husband was always belittling her,” the report shows.

Alcohol is also another aggravating factor, as highlighted by a young woman in Guadalcanal, saying “Sometimes our husbands drink and if we don’t please them, it causes trouble.”

Peculiarly, Guadalcanal women and young women, while identifying with the high risk of being attacked by a male member of the community going to and from the garden, also reveal that they are at risk of being attacked by Vele (local magic practitioners).

This threat is countered by women going to gardens in groups, the report says.

While women’s roles are expanding to encompass economic roles with paid work, women and young women in the three sites generally do not feel as though care duties are changing over time.

Some time and effort-saving resources have been secured at the household and community levels such as roads, tanks, water supply systems, solar power, wheelbarrows, kitchen and cleaning equipment and greater availability of transport.

Women’s increasing economic role has not been mirrored by an increase in support from men or new services or resources to ease their burden.

While most women want their husbands and sons to provide more support in this work, there was reluctance among some women to delegate work due to bride price and traditional gender roles.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

SOCIAL norms around age have become very limited to young women and youths, a report shows.

A 2018 report compiled by Strongim Bisnis and Oxfam Solomon Islands shows less participation of women and young people with social norms around age.

Youths appear to be affected by age-based discrimination to varying degrees and more so for unmarried youth especially young women.

According to the report, young unmarried women experience triple discrimination due to age, marital status and gender.

As described by a young woman in the Western province community, “Young married women can make some decisions, but if we are unmarried, we don’t have power.”

To varying degrees, this manifests in young men and especially young women exclusion from family and community decision-making and economic opportunities.

Young women are extremely restricted by social norms; they have a huge burden of unpaid care work, have limited education and economic opportunities and are managing the risks of violence in households and communities on a daily basis, often through limiting their mobility.

In some instances, such as in Guadalcanal, they showed more support for discriminatory social norms than young men and were challenged envisioning alternative futures.

However, from the report young women from Western province supports the theory that education of young women as well as other community members, is an important lever for young women’s empowerment.