Two hundred and 20 patients abandoned tuberculosis treatment during the year 2023, at the Provincial Sanatorium Hospital, due to the lack of social conditions and other factors
The information was provided yesterday by the institution’s general director, Baptista Manuel da Costa, highlighting that the situation is recurrent and, compared to the year 2022, there was an increase of 142 cases, which is a concern for the health authorities of the province.
He added that low economic power continues to be the main cause of treatment abandonment, taking into account that tuberculosis patients lack healthy food and the majority are unable to maintain an adequate diet.
He pointed out the lack of monitoring and moral support from family members, as well as prejudice as other causes.
He made it known that the majority of patients who abandoned treatment are the criminal population of the District and Damba Penitentiary and the Carreira de Tiro, Maxinde, Catepa and Campo de Aviação neighborhoods, due to the degree of vulnerability and poverty to which they are subjected.
New cases, he highlighted, reduced by 329, with 1,386 recorded in 2023 compared to 1,715 in 2022.
Regarding deaths, he stated that 75 had been recorded in 2022, six more compared to 2023. He said that at this time 48 patients were hospitalized, with the rest having been discharged, followed by outpatient treatment and abandoned.
He stated that the unit has a capacity of 72 beds and is facing a shortage of medicines, especially for tuberculosis, and the stock will not cover the needs for the month of January if it is not reinforced.
The hospital has 164 technicians, including nurses, doctors and administrative staff, whose number is reduced to meet patient demand and to cope with the opening, this year, of the user service office and the triage service. The unit needs at least another hundred technicians.