By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As the world commemorates the 2023. world Tuberculosis Day, WTB, today the World Health Organization, WHO, has call for accelerated action by countries to suppress and end TB in the African Region.
In a message by The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti in her message to mark the day, noted that there is a decline in TB deaths in Africa.
Moeti said, ” The WHO in the African Region is now on the threshold of reaching a 35% TB death reduction: there has been a 26% reduction in TB deaths between 2015 and 2021.”
In line with this, she disclosed that seven countries like Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, South Soudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia—have reached a 35% reduction in deaths since 2015.
“In 2021, with a clear roadmap, the WHO in the African Region showed that it is possible to reach – and even surpass –the first milestone of the End TB Strategy (20% reduction by 2020), with a decline rate of 22% in new infections since 2015.”
The WHO lead disclosed that through technical support, leading advocacy, and effective partnerships, enormous progress has been made over the past decade, especially in the East and Southern African Regions in TB decline.
High-burden countries, like Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia have surpassed or reached the 20% target of reducing new TB cases.
Moeti further highlighted challenges toward TB reduction to include , delayed diagnosis and testing leading to notable gap between the estimated number of new infections and case notifications of TB.
She revealed that 40% of the pople living with TB did not know of their diagnosis or it was not reported in 2021, leading to One million people are living with TB in the region have not been detected.
Approximately 20% of people newly diagnosed with TB are also living with HIV infection. There is a link between TB and HIV.
Also in Africa, only 26% of all people living with cases of the multi- drug TB r
are receiving the appropriate treatment.
She however expressed delight that some countries are increasing the uptake of new tools and guidance recommended by WHO, resulting in early access to TB prevention and care, and better outcomes.
Meanwhile, in African Region, the use of rapid diagnostic testing has increased from 34% in 2020 to 43% in 2021, which will improve countries’ ability to detect and diagnose new cases of the disease.
It is particularly important to find and diagnose cases of TB so that the patients can be treated, and their contacts offered preventive medication, she advised.
She singled out Nigeria as an example of a country that managed to significantly increase national TB case finding by 50% in 2021 using innovative approaches such as the expansion of the daily observed treatment protocols, use of digital technologies, Community Active Case Finding, and enlisting Public Private Mix initiatives.
The Regional Director noted that the World TB Day marked yearly on March 24 is a day set aside to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of this preventable disease and call for accelerated action to end it.
This year’s theme is “Yes, we can end TB,” highlighting the need to ensure equitable access to prevention and care, in line with our drive towards Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals., she said.
