Zambia joins WHO in a Seven year race to end Tuberculosis
President Hakainde Hichilema
Zambia joins WHO in a Seven year race to end Tuberculosis
By DERRICK SINJELA and SIMON BANDA
President Hakainde Hichilema reiterated a Zambian stance to end the burden of tuberculosis (TB) during commemorations hosted at the Mulungushi International Conference Center MICC Kenneth Kaunda New Wing KKNW in Lusaka on Friday, 24th March, 2023.
President Hichilema expressed delight over global support toward ending tuberculosis by the year 2030.
In a speech read by Health Minister, Ms. Sylvia Tembo-Masebo, Mr. Hichilema assured the international community that Zambia is resolved to ending TB by 2030.
“We are determined as a country toward ending TB by the year 2030,” Hichilema noted
The WTBD preceded by a School Debate Competition won by Kitwe Secondary School, on the Copperbelt saw a march past from East Park Mall to the venue led by Lusaka District Commissioner, Ms. Rosa Zulu, and Ms. Masrbo took the salute.
As history has a tendency of repeating itself, extactly 141 years ago, on Friday, 24th March, 1882, a German physician and scientist, Dr. Robert Koch, while utilizing a new staining method, applied it to the sputum specimen of TB patients and revealed for the first time the causal agent of the disease: Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Dr. Koch made his result public at the Physiological Society of Berlin on Friday, 24 March, 1882, in a famous lecture entitled “Über Tuberkulose”, which was published three weeks later.
Since 1982, 24 March, has been known as World TB Day.
On, 24th March each year, the world commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr. Koch announced causative agent of tuberculosis.
Commemorating World Tuberculosis Day under the theme “Yes! We Can End TB”, in an interview with AIDS Watch Africa (AWA) of the African Union Commission sat with Professor Julio Rakotonirina, the Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the African Union (AU) Commission, who reiterated a strong political will to end tuberculosis by 2030.
“As political leaders brace for emerging threats such as climate change, inflation, food shortages and conflict, priorities shift constantly,” advised Prof. Rakotonirina.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the World Tuberculosis Day
(WTBD) is a global opportunity platform on which to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the status of TB prevention and care efforts.
The WTBD is an opportunity to mobilize political and social commitment for evaluating progress on efforts to end TB by the year 2030.
Currently, about one quarter of the world’s population is infected with TB.
In the last five (5) years for which data is available (2011–15), new tuberculosis (TB) cases fell in the WHO European Region at an average rate of 4.3% per year – the fastest decline in the world.
Nevertheless, TB remains a major public health threat at both the global and the regional levels.
The European Region includes nine of the top thirty (30) countries with the highest burden of multidrug-resistant TB in the world.
Around 74 000 people in the Region were estimated to fall ill with drug-resistant TB in 2015.
Only 43, 000 of them, or one in three, were diagnosed (due to limited access to rapid and quality diagnosis) and commenced treatment.
On a positive note, the treatment success rate in drug-resistant TB patients increased sustainably in 2015 compared to 2011, from almost 49% to over 51%, even though it remains far below the 75% target.
TB can affect anyone but is most frequently seen among young adults in the eastern part of the European Region, migrants and native populations of older people in western European countries.
To some extent, TB is particularly linked to poverty, migration, imprisonment and social marginalization.
These countries are: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
On the move to end TB, WHO aims to end TB at all levels, under the leadership of Director – General is Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was appointed on Saturday, 1st July 2017.
The TB action plan for the WHO European Region 2016–2020 is the main guiding instrument for European countries to make progress in line with the global End TB Strategy 2016–2035, the Sustainable Development Goals and Health 2020, the WHO European health policy framework.
Working together in strong partnerships, WHO/Europe is assisting Member States with, for example, scaling up new rapid TB diagnostics tests, providing faster and more effective treatment in order to make progress in TB prevention and care.
Boosting research to develop new and more effective TB vaccines is also of key importance.
