Namibia winning the TB fight, Shangula says

Health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula says Namibia has made great strides in addressing tuberculosis (TB) as a public health concern, reaching a treatment success rate of 88% in 2021.This means the country is just 2% short of reaching the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 90% target for all forms of TB.Meanwhile, the country’s 75% treatment success rate with patients who have drug-resistant TB surpassed the WHO target.Shangula made the remarks during the commemoration of World TB Day at Onayena in the Oshikoto Region on Friday.He said the ministry was also seeing a decline in the HIV positivity rate among TB patients, from almost 60% in 2005 to 30% in 2021.This signifies success in the provision of TB-HIV services and prevention interventions, the minister said.“These interventions include intensified screening, introduction of WHO-recommended rapid molecular testing for TB as well as point-of-care TB testing among individuals with HIV; all in addition to the scaling up of shorter-term TB preventive therapy,” Shangula said.Not over yetDespite these successes, there is more to be done in the fight to end TB in Namibia, he said.“We are still ranked among the top 10 countries globally with the highest TB incidence rate; therefore, the WHO estimates that we could be missing about 44% of our TB cases nationally,” he said.He added that Namibia continues to detect and report leprosy cases.In 2021, Namibia recorded 20 cases of leprosy – seven fewer than in 2020.“These are, however, all new cases, urging us to strengthen our efforts in leprosy case diagnosis, and improving care and rehabilitation services to individuals affected by this debilitating disease,” the minister said.Shangula urged all health regional directors to provide unconditional support to nurses working as district TB and leprosy coordinators in all 36 health districts.“I also encourage all regional health directors to ensure that they take an active role in the implementation of the TB care and prevention interventions in their respective regions,” he said.Shangula also used the platform to request all struggling regional health teams to learn from the more successful regions.He said the statistics clearly demonstrate differences in performance from region to region.“It is only through networking and collaboration that success can be replicated in all regions,” he said.- tuyeimo@namibiansun.com

Namibia winning the TB fight, Shangula says

Comments

Namibian Sun 2022-07-07

Please login to leave a comment

Namibia winning the TB fight, Shangula says

Comments

Namibian Sun 2022-07-07

Please login to leave a comment

Login