Médecins Sans Frontières - WEBCLIP: Swaziland - Sign language for TB patients (ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF186741

Date taken / Date Recorded 22/03/2017 12:00 AM

Country Eswatini

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

Video format h264 (Constrained Baseline) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 1m40s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 172.10 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist SWAZILAND - Sign language for TB patients
Swaziland has the highest rate of new cases of tuberculosis in the world. Multidrug-resistant forms of the disease are on the increase.
MSF supports patients during their long and arduous treatment that has numerous side effects, including hearing loss.

This morning Celumusa is going to see Winile, a patient who suffers from MDR-TB, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

CELUMUSA HLATSWAKO, Mobile Counsellor, MSF (in English)
“Some of the side effects of the treatment of MDR (MDR- Multidrug-resistant TB)it damages the hearing, so that’s why we use sign language to communicate with those patients who have got hearing impairment." Sign language is so interesting, it’s not hard”.

Like Winile, 25% of patients on treatment develop hearing loss or become totally deaf.

WINILE
I think now I’ve learned sign language, I will find a job

Patients undergoing treatment in Matsapha clinic have their hearing checked regularly.
MSF is conducting operational research into the length of treatment and the side effects.
To reduce patients’ social isolation, MSF is breaking new ground and providing sign language lessons.
7,000 new cases of tuberculosis are diagnosed in Swaziland every year, 900 are resistant to treatment. So every time a patient is cured and handed a certificate attesting to their good health, there’s a lot to celebrate.