TUBERCULOSIS has been known to mankind since ancient times and on March 24, the world will commemorate World Tuberculosis Day.
The commemorations will be held under the theme ‘Reach the three million’.
Around three million people (equal to one in three people falling ill with TB) are currently being ‘missed’ by health systems.
With continued HIV infections, there is a dramatic resurgence of tuberculosis with more than eight million new cases reported each year worldwide and more than two million people dying.
Last year, Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) deputy director for AIDS and TB, Dr Charles Sandy said they were experiencing a decline in TB cases in the country.
He however, expressed concern over the presence of multi-drug resistant TB.
Multi-drug resistant TB is when a patient fails to respond to medication.
In 2011, a total of 156 patients were diagnosed with the multi-drug resistant (MDR) strain with the figure rising to 244 in 2012.
MDR-TB is caused by an organism that is resistant to isoniazid and rifampin, which are the two most powerful drugs used in TB treatment.
MDR-TB develops when the course of antibiotics is interrupted and the levels of drug in the body are insufficient to kill 100 percent of the bacteria.
When a patient breaks the treatment cycle for one reason or another the disease can become resistant.
TB is curable, but current efforts to find, treat and cure everyone who gets ill with the disease are not sufficient.
Of the nine million people a year who get TB, a third are ‘missed’ by health systems.
Many of these three million people live in vulnerable communities or are among marginalised populations such as migrant workers, refugees and internally displaced persons, prisoners, indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities and drug users.
World TB Day provides the opportunity for affected persons and the communities in which they live, governments civil society organisations, health-care providers, and international partners to call for further action to reach the three million.
World TB Day is an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the status of TB prevention and control efforts.
The Day is also an occasion to mobilise political and social commitment for further progress.
Progress towards global targets for reductions in TB cases and deaths in recent years have been impressive: TB mortality has fallen over 45 percent worldwide since 1990, and incidence is declining.
New TB tools such as rapid diagnostics are helping transform response to the disease and new life-saving drugs are being introduced.
But the global burden remains huge and significant challenges persist.
l In 2012, there were an estimated 8,6 million new cases of TB and 1,3 million people died from TB.
l Over 95 percent of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Poor communities and vulnerable groups are most affected, but this airborne disease is a risk to all.
l TB is among the top 3 causes of death for women aged 15 to 44.
l There were an estimated 500 000 cases and 74 000 deaths among children in 2012.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), governments and health care providers face challenges.
For example, there is slow progress in tackling multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and three out of four MDR-TB cases still remain without a diagnosis, and around 16 000 MDR-TB cases reported to WHO in 2012 were not put on treatment.
Provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for TB patients known to be living with HIV needs to increase to meet WHO’s recommendation that all TB patients living with HIV promptly receive ART.