Awareness key in TB fi ght
Mar 24, 2017
CELEBRATING WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY
By Jacquiline Emodek
Every March 24, the world marks World Tuberculosis (TB) Day. The day offers an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis worldwide, prevention and care efforts for patients.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), TB is caused by bacteria and affects the respiratory system. It is airborne, meaning when people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they spread it. A person needs to inhale only a few germs to be infected.
Global trends
Last year, WHO reported that of the 10.4 million patiets who had TB in 2015, 1.8 million died, making it the top infectious killer worldwide. In 2015, there were an estimated 10.4 million new TB cases worldwide, with 5.9 million (56%) being males, while 3.5 million (34%) were women and 1.0 million (10%) children.
People living with HIV accounted for 1.2 million (11%) of all new TB cases. There were an estimated 480,000 new cases of multidrug- resistant (MDR-TB) and an additional 100,000 people with rifampicin-resistant strain (RRTB), who were also newly eligible for MDR-TB treatment.
MDR-TB is a form of tuberculosis that is resistant to the two most important medicines, which make it expensive to treat. Globally, there are an estimated 1.4 million TB deaths and an additional 0.4 million of people living with HIV. Despite TB deaths falling by 22% between 2000 and 2015, the disease remained one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide in 2015.
Theme World
TB Day also offers an opportunity to mobilise political and social commitment for further progress in the efforts to end TB. This will be through the theme: 2017 is the second year of the two-year Unite to End TB campaign.
WHO will place special focus on uniting efforts to leave no one behind, including actions to address stigma, discrimination and overcome barriers to access to care.
This is hinged on the Sustainable Development agenda, which embraces the principle of ensuring no one is left behind in an effort to change the world and improve people's lives for the better.
By addressing the health needs of the marginalised, there will be an improvement in access to health services - which is essential in reaching the target of ending TB by 2030 (part of the UN SDGs and the WHO strategy to end TB).
Dr Frank Mugabe Rwabinumi, the programme manager of the National TB/Leprosy Control Programme (NTLP) at the Ministry of Health, explains that it is important to unite and end TB, which is a global epidemic.
"The world has battled TB for many years. It is surprising that up to now, we still lose almost two million people each year," he says. Globally, TB in 2015 surpassed HIV as the leading killer.
Situation in Uganda
Uganda loses 6,000 people to TB yearly. The disease is among the country's top 10 killers and the number one killer of hospitalised patients and yet it is treatable, curable and preventable.
Each year, the country records about 90,000 new tuberculosis cases (people who get the infection and develop the disease), 41% of whom are infected with HIV.
"About 15% are children, an indication that there is a lot of transmission," Mugabe explains. More men than women (ratio of 3:1) are infected.
They have a poor health seeking behaviour. The NTLP also has a record of 2.5% of the patients suffering from MDR-TB. Mugabe says on average, an individual patient needs about $4,000 (sh15m) to go through the treatment. The treatment duration is also long and ranges between nine CLICK HERE FOR MORE
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