New initiative launched in Africa to boost war against TB
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E-mail Xinhua, May 5, 2020
NAIROBI, May 4 (Xinhua) -- The war against tuberculosis (TB) in Africa received a boost on Monday when a consortium of donors and research entities announced an initiative to support prevention and treatment of the bacterial disease in urban areas.
The Nairobi-based African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) said the initiative aims to revitalize high impact interventions like access to diagnostics, treatment and vaccines to help eradicate TB in the continent.
"Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing rapid growth in cities where TB and HIV burdens are high," Eliya Zulu, the executive director, AFIDEP said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
"It is great to be part of this innovative program that will put evidence at the center of efforts to decisively address the challenges that African countries face in addressing the burden of TB in urban areas," he added.
The new initiative dubbed "Leaving no-one behind: transforming gendered pathways to Health for TB (LIGHT)", focuses on innovative ways to tackle the root cause of the disease and why it has weighed heavily on the male gender.
It will be implemented in urban centers in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi while evidence generated during collaborative research will be used to inform formulation of gender-sensitive and pro-poor policies to boost the fight against TB.
Zulu said that Africa's rapidly growing cities have become the epicenters of TB that has in turn disproportionately affected men in the low-income bracket.
"There are 4.1 times as many TB cases among men as women in Uganda," said Zulu adding that the fight against poverty and gender inequality is key to reduce TB fatalities in Africa.
He said that a multidisciplinary team of health and research experts will devise innovative strategies to boost diagnosis, prevention and management of TB cases in the four African countries where the initiative will be piloted.
Zulu said that implementation of the new initiative will also focus on promoting access to information on TB prevention and treatment among men in low-income urban settlements.
He said the new initiative will help accelerate the attainment of TB eradication goal in Africa by reorienting policy and funding interventions towards the contagious disease amid huge attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. Enditem
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