A disease beyond reach: nurse perspectives on the past and present of tuberculosis control in South Africa

South African adolescents' lived experiences of acquired hearing loss following multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment

Objective

The impact of acquiring hearing loss might be exacerbated during adolescence, as this normal transition from childhood to adulthood is characterised by identity construction and social intensity. This study aimed to describe the lived experiences of South African adolescents with acquired hearing loss following aminoglycoside treatment for multidrug resistant tuberculosis.

Design

The study adopted a descriptive phenomenological design and in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted in English, isiZulu and Afrikaans. The data was managed and analysed according to a modified version of Hycner's framework.

Study sample

Six participants aged 16-24 years with bilateral, mild to profound hearing loss acquired from aminoglycoside treatment were recruited from two South African provinces.

Results

Three themes emerged which created a triple burden for participants. They endured socio-economic hardship encompassing limited economic and emotional support. Participants battled the consequences of life-threatening MDR-TB including illness, hospitalisation, stigma, and other challenges. Finally, participants were left with life-changing hearing loss.

Conclusion

The findings indicate the necessity of holistic management of adolescents with aminoglycoside-related acquired hearing loss and serves as motivation to improve ototoxic monitoring practices and patient uptake of monitoring services and calls for the cessation, or at least cautious use, of aminoglycosides.

Making morbidity multiple: History, legacies, and possibilities for global health

Multimorbidity has been framed as a pressing global health challenge that exposes the limits of systems organised around single diseases. This article seeks to expand and strengthen current thinking around multimorbidity by analysing its construction within the field of global health. We suggest that the significance of multimorbidity lies not only in challenging divisions between disease categories but also in what it reveals about the culture and history of transnational biomedicine. Drawing on social research from sub-Saharan Africa to ground our arguments, we begin by describing the historical processes through which morbidity was made divisible in biomedicine and how the single disease became integral not only to disease control but to the extension of biopolitical power. Multimorbidity, we observe, is hoped to challenge single disease approaches but is assembled from the same problematic, historically-loaded categories that it exposes as breaking down. Next, we highlight the consequences of such classificatory legacies in everyday lives and suggest why frameworks and interventions to integrate care have tended to have limited traction in practice. Finally, we argue that efforts to align priorities and disciplines around a standardised biomedical definition of multimorbidity risks retracing the same steps. We call for transdisciplinary work across the field of global health around a more holistic, reflexive understanding of multimorbidity that foregrounds the culture and history of translocated biomedicine, the intractability of single disease thinking, and its often-adverse consequences in local worlds. We outline key domains within the architecture of global health where transformation is needed, including care delivery, medical training, the organisation of knowledge and expertise, global governance, and financing.

Nursing actions promoting adherence to tuberculosis treatment: scoping review

OBJECTIVE

To analyze actions promoting adherence to tuberculosis treatment that are being carried out by nurses in different countries.

METHOD

Scoping review with selection of articles on the subject in LILACS, MEDLINE, IBECS, BDENF, SciELO, CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus databases.

RESULTS

Forty studies, published between 2009 and 2020, allowed the identification of nursing actions in two thematic categories. In the category "Nursing care: TB patients' specific needs to promote adherence to treatment", actions involving clinical aspects, professionals' knowledge and skills, educational and relational processes were identified. In the category "The role of nursing in coping with the social determinants of health to promote adherence to treatment", interventions related to the strengthening of family and community support, the inclusion of socioeconomic issues in care plans, and respect for cultural differences were highlighted.

CONCLUSION

Nursing work directed to the adherence to disease treatment requires the development of technical, ethical and, above all, political skills, aiming to increase the success of the actions carried out by these professionals.

'TB is a disease which hides in the body': Qualitative data on conceptualisations of tuberculosis recurrence among patients in Zambia and South Africa

The WHO estimates 58 million people experienced one or more TB disease episodes between 2000 and 2018. These 'former TB patients' are at greater risk of future TB infection and death than TB naïve people. Additionally, former TB patients experience social, psychological, and physiological difficulties after microbiological cure. Drawing on semi-structured interviews collected with 28 people from communities in Zambia (n = 8) and South Africa (n = 2) between October 2018 and March 2019, we describe their perceptions of having two or more TB episodes. Utilising a discursive analytic approach, we interrogated how participants conceptualise their risk of disease recurrence. Despite being surprised by subsequent TB episodes, participants utilised their bodily experiences of TB signs and symptoms alongside their experiential knowledge of health systems processes to procure timely diagnosis and care. Yet, many participants were unable to resume social and economic participation. Experiences of multiple TB episodes and correlating social, economic, and physiological vulnerabilities, challenged participants biomedical understanding of TBs curability. Through notions of dirt and 'staining', participants conceptualise TB as a sinister, malicious presence they are bound to encounter time and again. Health providers should discuss the risk of TB recurrence with patients and promote prevention, early detection, and diagnosis of TB disease.