RESEARCH ARTICLE
Public Health Care Practitioner’s Reflections on Tuberculosis Patient’s Perspectives on Factors Influencing their Adherence to the Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course
Pamela Naidoo*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 2
First Page: 33
Last Page: 38
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-2-33
DOI: 10.2174/1874944500902010033
Article History:
Received Date: 24/03/2009Revision Received Date: 22/05/2009
Acceptance Date: 17/07/2009
Electronic publication date: 8/9/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa is well established. TB, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) co-exist, which contributes to the high incidence, prevalence, and recurrent infection rate of TB. Despite the implementation of the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) strategy, a World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative to stop the spread of the disease by 2015, TB continues to threaten the health of many, especially those in under-resourced, communities. TB patients’ adherence to the treatment programme (DOTS) is vital to the reduction of the re-infection rate and the prevention of new cases. Health care practitioner’s commitment and professional engagement within a patient-centred health care model is essential to the success of the DOTS initiative.