NAIROBI, March 20 (Xinhua) -- It is possible for the African continent to eliminate tuberculosis by 2030 once governments and partners scale up investments in diagnosis, treatment and management of the highly infectious respiratory disease, health experts said Wednesday ahead of World TB Day, which falls on Sunday.

Allan Pamba, the executive vice president for Africa at Roche Diagnostics, a multinational pharmaceutical firm, stressed that expanding access to diagnostics and life-long treatment will be key to taming the continent's high TB burden.

"By ensuring more people are diagnosed and treated early for TB, African countries will be able to reduce fatalities linked to the disease," Pamba said at a virtual forum convened by Roche Diagnostics in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.

Statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that in 2022, some 2.5 million people fell ill with TB in the African region, accounting for a quarter of new TB cases worldwide. In addition, an estimated 424,000 people died from the disease in the African region in 2022, equivalent to 33 percent of global TB deaths.

Timely diagnosis and treatment of TB saved 10 million lives in the African region from 2010 to 2022, according to the WHO, even as countries rally behind ambitious global targets to eliminate the disease by 2030.

Pamba urged African governments to implement the WHO recommendations on upscaling TB diagnosis and treatment by leveraging sustainable financing, training of health workforce, and reforming medical commodities supply chains. He added that revamping laboratory facilities and promoting community-based advocacy and education will be key to boosting TB testing, treatment and care in the continent's high-burden countries.

Jerry Hella, an epidemiologist and public health specialist at Tanzania's Ifakara Health Institute, said African states have made substantial progress in reducing TB caseload and deaths but must fight cultural, financing, infrastructural and human resource barriers that could reverse those gains.

Hella said that the availability of essential medicine combined with robust community-based diagnosis and treatment programs have led to a significant reduction in TB burden in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Gabon and Eswatini.

Ida Mbuthia, the Health Access lead at Roche Diagnostics, said that African countries must fight stigma, equip rural health facilities and encourage mass testing at the grassroots to avert new TB infections and deaths. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)