"40 Percent Of TB Patients In Zimbabwe Unaware Of Their Status"
More than 40 per cent of TB patients in Zimbabwe do not know their status, an official from the Union TB Trust has said.
Zimbabwe continues to be among the 30 high-burden countries, with drug-resistant tuberculosis posing a significant challenge to achieving the established objectives for disease eradication.
The Union TB Trust’s Executive Director, Ronald Ncube, told the Chronicle that their collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Care has yielded training opportunities for community workers. These workers play a pivotal role in nationwide TB screening.
Ncube further stated that currently, 1,000 community health workers are actively engaging with communities, mobilizing the public to undergo screening, and referring individuals with symptoms to clinics for early treatment. He said:
As Union Zimbabwe Trust we have different programmes like Kunda Nqobi TB that have been implemented after we got US$15 million to help the Ministry in the fight against TB.
HOT DEALS:
itel A70 - (128GB, 3GB RAM) $89,
itel A70 - (256GB, 4GB RAM) $99
itel P40 (128GB, 4GB), (6000mAh) $99
itel P40 (64GB, 4G), (6000mAh) $93
LATEST:
itel S24 (128GB) $124 (108MP camera)
itel S24 (256GB) $159 (108MP camera)
Cash on Delivery in Harare & Bulawayo. Tinotumira kwamuri inosvika.WhatsApp: 0783 450 793
We wish to extend our gratitude to community health workers as we have a network of almost 1000 workers who educate communities, refer those with symptoms to clinics and do much mobilising to ensure everyone knows about the disease.
As a country, we have yearly targets that we set in line with WHO and in 2022 it was estimated that we have over 30 000 people with TB but we managed to find over 18 000 and we need to screen and put them into treatment.
This means we have another 15,000 or so people yet to be screened and put on treatment which means work must be done in our communities to ensure everyone with TB starts treatment.
Itai Rusike, the director of the Community Working Group on Health, emphasized that despite tuberculosis being a major global infectious disease, Zimbabwe possesses essential life-saving resources for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
He further asserted that overcoming barriers and addressing inequities—which contribute to the suffering and mortality of millions due to TB annually—will further enhance the country’s progress in the ongoing battle against the disease. Said Rusike:
Inequity is the biggest barrier to ending TB, often those living in poverty or with environmental risk factors can face catastrophic costs to access diagnosis and treatment.
Scaling up progress in the fight against TB is crucial to win the battle against this disease. We must bring focused testing, treatment and care services to the people who most need them.
When we fight TB, we fight other deadly diseases and prepare for the next pandemic. The same lab workers, diagnostic machines, supply chains, primary health care facilities, disease surveillance capabilities, and community health workers that fight TB prepare the world for future health threats.
Some of the barriers to TB prevention and treatment include stigma and misconceptions, lack of awareness about TB symptoms, transmission, and available services, limited access to healthcare facilities, diagnostic challenges, drug-resistant TB strains, non-adherence to treatment which can lead to treatment failure and drug resistance, co-infections, inadequate infrastructure, insufficient trained healthcare workers, and weak health systems, as well as migration and urbanization: Movement of people across regions and urbanization can facilitate TB spread and strain healthcare resources.
Efforts to overcome these barriers involve community engagement, education, improved diagnostics, and strengthened healthcare systems.
More: Pindula News
