Doing the right thing for tuberculosis control in the Torres Strait Islands

Konstantinos, Anastasios; Simpson, Graham; Sorrell, Tania C; Marais, Ben J

doi:10.5694/mja11.10925

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To the Editor: Recent articles in the Journal have noted the first case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in New Zealand,1 and emphasised the exponential increase in cost and complexity of managing drug-resistant TB.2 We thus wish to caution against the proposed premature closure of TB treatment services for Papua New Guinea (PNG) citizens who access health care in the Torres Strait Islands.

1 Queensland Tuberculosis Control Centre, Queensland Health, Brisbane, QLD.
2 Thoracic Medicine and Regional TB Control Unit, Cairns Base Hospital, Cairns, QLD.
3 Sydney Institute for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: Anastasios_konstantinos@health.qld.gov.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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