BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
Reports from various institutions confirm that Tuberculosis (TB) is still one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 (above HIV/AIDS) from a single infectious agent. Millions of people continue to fall sick with TB each year.
The Ethiopian Herald approached the Ministry of Health TB Leprosy and other Lung Diseases Desk Head Taye Letta to learn how the nation is responding to the pandemic and the work carried out so far to tackle the problem at the grass root level.
According to Taye, Ethiopia is one among the 30 high TB, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) burden countries, with annual estimated TB incidence of 177/100,000 populations and death rate of 25 per 100,000 populations.
According to him, government’s commitment to accelerate the fight to end the TB epidemic by 2035 by endorsing the new post-2015 Global “END TB Strategy” aligns with the National TB Strategic Plan within the framework of National Health Sector Transformation Plan.
The National End TB Strategy aims to end the TB epidemic by reducing TB related deaths by 95 percent and to cut the occurrences of new TB cases by 90 percent between 2015 and 2035; and to ensure no family is burdened with the catastrophic expenses due to TB. The Strategy calls for use of robust TB case finding strategies and use of rapid diagnostic technologies to address the gap in finding the missed TB cases and threat of drug resistant TB. The program is committed to improve access and equitable TB services to vulnerable and marginalized population groups where TB burden concentrates and most delays happen due to socio-economic and legal barriers.
It should be well noted that though there are encouraging achievements regarding Tuberculosis, the problem is still continued to be a major public health problem due to continued high incidence, prevalence and mortality. To this end, all-encompassing intervention, ‘Health in All Policies’ (HiAP) and a paradigm shift from focusing on to controlling the disease is the call of the day to ending the epidemic.
Moreover, strong government stewardship, universal access, reaching vulnerable populations, engagement of civil society and communities as well as adoption of new technologies is another mechanism to ending the TB epidemic.
Mentioning that effort to end TB is well underway in collaboration with development partners, bilateral and multilateral organizations, he said that the community at large is jointly working to combat this deadly disease and achieve the set Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and END TB by 2035.
According to him, low level of public awareness about tuberculosis, absence of rapid TB diagnosis and medical treatment, and strong TB-HIV/AIDS synergy, among other factors; have challenged the efforts and worsened the spread of tuberculosis in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia ranks 7th among the 22 high TB-burden countries worldwide and currently it is working to achieve the targets set by the WHO to end TB a in the coming years, he said, the country stands 3rd among such African countries. The country is undertaking free TB diagnosis and treatment at 1,448 state-owned health service institutions and at more than 230 private health service facilities.
What is more, the country is implementing the globally recommended TB control strategies; and the services are provided in public and quite countable numbers of private health facilities nationwide. Since the strategies have become operational, more than a million TB cases have been identified and treated successfully and many more lives were saved.
Ending the TB epidemic by 2035 requires strengthening concerted efforts of the government, developmental partners, academicians, civic society organizations, patient advocates, private sector and the community at large. There is a huge effort by WHO in the global arena for countries to increase political commitment and investment to attain this goal.
To address the gaps and overcome the challenges, the Ministry of Health and regional health bureaus in collaboration with partners are engaged in identifying and implementing highly effective and high-impact initiatives.
The initiatives are developed in line with the country’s Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) and the End TB Strategy. The key initiatives that are identified and being implemented include to inform, educate and mobilize the communities to maximize their involvement in the fight against TB, the expansion of community TB care and prevention through intensified health extension program and health development army strategies.
Equally, quality assured TB diagnostics expansion and enhancement, health facility-based TB care and prevention packages, integrated TB/HIV services expansion, TB operational research and innovations and strengthening TB monitoring and evaluation system are matters that demand due attention from all.
This year’s World Tuberculosis Day will be observed on March 24, with the theme “Yes! We can end TB” The Day is marked to inspire hope and encourage high-level leadership, increased investments, faster uptake of new WHO recommendations, and adoption of innovations, accelerated action, and multispectral collaboration to combat the TB epidemic.
The Ethiopian Herald March 12/ 2023
