By Catherine Murombedzi

FAMILY support is vital for anyone ill.
Moral support can be the missing piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle for most patients.
The recovery path in the fight against tuberculosis (TB) is lengthy while pill-fatigue saps the little energy one has left, a TB survivor has pointed out.
Medication can treat the bacterial infection with success. However, when the mind is not healed, recovery remains elusive.
TB is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB).
TB generally affects the lungs, but can also affect the spinal cord, lymph nodes, stomach and any other part of the body.
Most TB infections do not have symptoms, in which case this is known as ‘latent’.
About 10 percent of latent infections progress to active disease which, if left untreated, kills about half of those infected.
The classic symptoms of active TB are a chronic cough with blood-containing sputum, fever, night sweats, loss of appetite and weight loss.
In Zimbabwe, in the 1980s going back, TB patients in need of hospitalisation were admitted at specific health centres.
Makumbi Mission Hospital in Mashonaland East Province, Muvonde Mission Hospital in Masvingo popularity known as ‘Driefointein’, Howard Mission Hospital in Mashonaland Central, Bonda Mission Hospital in Manicaland and Karanda Mission Hospital in Mashonaland Central, among other centers of excellence not mentioned, had TB units which saw patients admitted before completing treatment and being discharged.
However, with the population growth, this is no longer possible.
Today, TB treatment has been decentralised and all hospitals and almost all clinics are now dispensing TB treatment.
The problem is that, not all centres can reach TB treatment excellence.
For multiple drug resistance TB, (MDRTB), hospitalisation is still necessary.
A patient with MDRTB takes multiple tablets complemented with injections given for a minimum of three months.
Depending on treatment success, the course can run from 20 up to 30 months.
Distance travelled from home to the hospital becomes a barrier to completing treatment.
Cost too becomes a hindrance, not to talk of lack of food physical fatigue and pill-fatigue.
Although some centres supplement diets for TB patients, it’s not under national coverage, hence hunger becomes a complication.
The US Aid for International Development (USAID), World Food Programme (WFP) and several other donors have offered relief services for supplementary diet to patients and the needy people in general.
John Toro, a TB survivor from Murehwa gave insight into importance of moral support.
“I’m alive because of support from my family and the village health worker who supported me through home visits and at times brought me dried beans,” he said.
“There were times I failed to walk and there was no one at home, the village health worker accompanied me to the hospital and gave me hope (sic).
“Without care and human support, there’s no way I could be here today.”
From his harrowing experience with TB, Toro is now assisting the village health worker in the community rounds, raising awareness and identifying suspected TB cases.
Tuberculosis is an airborne bacterial infection that is preventable and curable with the right treatment and adherence.
In addition to appropriate medication, it is human support, like what Toro received, that makes the difference between life and death.
Community health workers are essential in providing moral support, adherence, hope and demystifying stigma as they embrace and show love to patients.
Stigma becomes a social distance hampering treatment.
Community health workers are ‘the eye’ in the missed cases who never report to hospitals.
Survivors of TB, willing to help like Toro, are effective tools in stopping TB.
Toro is offering his services out of love and concern to save lives. However, community health workers need training, supervision and remuneration to keep serving communities.
Caregivers also need care themselves.
Toro needs support in his community work as he fights stigma from family and community and as he ‘melts’ self-stigma which inhibits a patient from seeking treatment.
Patients too are often open when talking to someone who walked the journey.
Ending TB by 2020, as envisaged by the World Health Organisation (WHO) a decade ago, is now hazy, with 10 million having been infected by TB in 2017 while 1,6 million succumbed to it.
Together we can help fight TB.
Give support to a loved one currently fighting the scourge.