Kiribati Health Minister, Tinte Itinteang and Australia's Foreign Minister, Penny Wong at the opening of the new TB Ward at Tarawa. Photo: Govt of Kiribati
A new facility to treat hundreds of i-Kiribati people suffering from tuberculosis (TB) - has opened at the Tungaru Central Hospital on Tarawa.
Kiribati continues to battle with one of the highest rates of TB in the Pacific recording over 400 new cases of the infectious disease annually.
The nation has also recorded 15 drug-resistant TB cases since detecting its first such case in 2006.
Health Minister Tinte Itinteang said the new TB Ward - which is funded by the Australian government - will be key to help them tackle the epidemic.
"The work that we are here to celebrate today plays a crucial role in our strategy to control and to eliminate TB in Kiribati," Dr Itinteang said during the official opening ceremony last week.
"This premise will provide an open ward for isolating and restricting movement of susceptible pulmonary TB positive patients. It also includes isolation units for drug-resistant cases."
He said a nine-year-old child was the country's youngest and most recent drug resistant tuberculosis patient, who had their treatment completed in late 2022 and discharged.
"The successful treatment of the drug-resistant strain in this child is a testament that we can defeat this TB epidemic."
The Australian government has been pouring in funding to support the implementation of Kiribati's national TB programme to eliminate the disease, through various targeted projects for the last 16 years.
Some of the projects include funding TB staff salaries, contact tracing nurses and community DOT (directly observed treatment) workers, technical support for the TB programme, funding of an outreach programme to remote outer islands for active case findings and for the follow of TB cases, and actively identify cases on South Tarawa.
"Australia is very privileged and proud to be a champion for public health, particularly for addressing tuberculosis, something we do in many parts of the Pacific," Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong said at the handover.
Wong said Australia has supported Kiribati's efforts to combat the disease since it was declared an epidemic.
But health is just one the areas in which the two countries work in partnership.
Wong also announced the Australia-Kiribati climate security $AU5 million programme that will be implemented by the UN Office of Project Services, working closely with the Office of the President.