Médecins Sans Frontières says it is scaling up efforts to help combat tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea, as the country continues to battle with a soaring outbreak of the disease.
Hanuabada, the original village of Papua New Guinea's capital city Port Moresby inhabited by the Motuan people; with the CBD in the background. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
The NGO is part of an emergency taskforce announced by the government last August in response to a large increase in the number of drug-resistant cases of TB.
The programme manager for MSF's tuberculosis project, Eric Pujo, says a newly-launched programme aims to calculate the scope and the nature of TB in Gulf province and the capital, Port Moresby.
He says it is difficult to work out the prevalence of TB infection because PNG has lacked a proper diagnostic system.
"That is why MSF is trying, and working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, on this issue and trying to implement fully functional tuberculosis project in Gulf Province and in Port Moresby in the coming months."
Listen to full interview with Eric Pujo on Dateline Pacific