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STORY: SOUTH AFRICA/ AIDS-TB ADVANCER
TRT: 2.38
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / AFRICAANS/NATS
DATE LINE: RECENT 2012, WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA
1. Med shot, children playing jump rope
2. Close up, girl writing and reading
3. Pan right, hospital
4. Med shot, girl and boy with TB visiting with nurse
5. SOUNDBITE (Afrikaans) Imelda Mesia, TB patient:
“I miss them so much. I long for them and they long for me.”
6. Med shot, infants in TB ward
7. Med shot, infant in crib and doctor
8. Close up, infants looking over cribs
9. Med shot, Professor Robert Gie examining x-rays with nurse
10. Med shot, pregnant woman walking
11. Med shot, TB infant ward
12. Close up, nurse weighing baby
11. Close up, baby in crib
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Robert Gie, childhood TB expert, Stellenbosch University, South Africa:
“Young children under the age of about one have a five to ten-fold greater chance of developing severe tuberculosis compared to older children, so they are much more vulnerable, but are not receiving the attention they deserve.”
13. Pan right, infant TB ward with cribs and children
14. Close up, nurse holding infant hand
15. Med shot, two TB-positive youth visiting nurse
16. Close up, boy pouring pills into hand
17. Med shot, infant ward
18. Med shot, doctor and nurse visiting babies
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Gerald Morkel, Pediatrician, Brooklyn Chest Hospital, South Africa:
“It’s difficult for them to swallow 5, 6, 7 tablets.”
20. Med shot, nurse and babies
21. Med shot, Stop TB Partnership’s Lucica Ditiu reading TB materials
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Lucica Ditiu, Stop TB Partnership:
“There are two hundred children that die from tuberculosis every day and many thousand get sick. This is shocking. No child should die from tuberculosis and we need to work all together to make this happen.”
23. Med shot, mother Elam Mkoka walking with her son
24. Close up, children playing
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Sheila Mkoka, mother:
“I feel free and I am happy because I took my child early – and he is sitting next to me – and he is not sick.”
26. Med shot, mothers and children outside
27. Med shot, young boy and girl with TB playing baseball
Around half a million children become ill with Tuberculosis (TB) every year around the world, and in South Africa alone, where forty percent of people with TB also carry HIV, 50 thousand children contract TB every year, while many more are believed to go undiagnosed. TB advocates will convene next week at the International AIDS conference in Washington, DC.
These children spend their afternoons doing what they love playing carefree games.
But instead of being with her friends, 12-year-old Imelda Mesia has been staying at the nearby Brooklyn Chest Hospital in Cape Town, where she has been treated for TB for the past five months. It’s been tough living away from her family.
SOUNDBITE (Afrikaans) Imelda Mesia, TB patient:
“I miss them so much. I long for them and they long for me.”
These babies have to be separated from their mothers as they receive much-needed treatment in hospital.
Childhood TB expert, Professor Robert Gie, from Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, says pregnant women as well as babies and toddlers are particularly vulnerable to TB, and have been neglected in research. Babies are often prone to severe TB, like TB meningitis.
SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Robert Gie, childhood TB expert, Stellenbosch University, South Africa:
“Young children under the age of about one have a five to ten-fold greater chance of developing severe tuberculosis compared to older children, so they are much more vulnerable, but are not receiving the attention they deserve.”
Babies often have to endure uncomfortable and traumatic tests to diagnose for TB.
The Stop TB Partnership and the World Health Organization (WHO) are advocating for change. TB medication has not changed for decades. The drugs are hard, bitter and difficult to swallow, can make children nauseous and in extreme cases lead to loss of hearing WHO says.
Dr. Gerald Morkel, pediatrician at the hospital, says mothers need constant encouragement to keep going with the medication for their babies.
SOUNDBITE (English) Gerald Morkel, Pediatrician, Brooklyn Chest Hospital, South Africa:
“It’s difficult for them to swallow 5, 6, 7 tablets.”
The tablets have to be crushed so that babies can swallow them. As bitter as the medication may be, without proper treatment, TB often kills. The message is being carried from Cape Town to New York.
SOUNDBITE (English) Lucica Ditiu, Stop TB Partnership:
“There are two hundred children that die from tuberculosis every day and many thousand get sick. This is shocking. No child should die from tuberculosis and we need to work all together to make this happen.”
Healthy children like Elam Mkoka are proof that medication and care can make the world of difference. Elam’s mother, Sheila, is thrilled to have him back from hospital and fully recovered from TB.
SOUNDBITE (English) Sheila Mkoka, mother:
“I feel free and I am happy because I took my child early – and he is sitting next to me – and he is not sick.”
That’s the goal for more children across the world less illness and zero TB deaths in children.
From 22-27 July, TB advocates will gather at AIDS 2012, the International AIDS conference in Washington DC, to draw attention to TB/HIV. The theme of AIDS 2012 - is Turning the Tide Together.
