Bulawayo TB cases spike

Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
BULAWAYO recorded a 40 percent increase in tuberculosis (TB) deaths in May with reports showing that Emakhandeni health district had the highest number of new cases recorded in that month.

Emakhandeni district covers all Pumula suburbs, Pelandaba, Luveve, Cowdray Park, Magwegwe, Gwabalanda, St Peters, Mazwi and Methodist villages, and Lobengula.

According to latest council minutes, there were 107 TB notifications recorded in May.

Bulawayo has the highest TB death rate of 16 percent, which is higher than the nationally set target of less than five percent, due to a myriad of risk factors chief among them being the high TB/HIV co-infection, delayed presentation at health facilities and rampant overcrowding in some of the city’s settlements.

In Bulawayo, the 2021 notification rate (174/100 000 population) was higher than the expected target of 167/100 000 population.

The notification rate has since declined from 258/100 000 population in 2016 to 174/100 000 population in 2021.

Lost to follow-up has remained at two percent (less than the national target of less than five percent since 2016.

“There was a marked increase of 27 percent in the TB notifications in May. Emakhandeni District had the highest number of notifications.

“TB deaths increased significantly by 40 percent while there was marked decrease of patients in the register,” read the council minutes.

“In April, notifications stood at 84 and they went up to 107 in May while deaths shot up to from 10 recorded in April.”

The city’s director for health services, Dr Edwin Sibanda, is on record saying TB is generally HIV-driven by Zimbabweans based in South Africa and other neighbouring countries.

“Another reason is that they live a fast life whenever they are in neighbouring countries and in the whole world it is known that South Africa has the highest rate of people suffering from both TB and HIV,” he said.

“In 2016, we had high rates of people who were diagnosed with TB in the country mainly because they could go in and out of the country as they liked.” Dr Sibanda said patients with HIV had a 50 percent chance of developing TB.

“There are also people with diabetes, kidney failure, anemia, and studies have proven that they are also a predisposing factor for TB,” he said.

In Zimbabwe, it is estimated that 29 000 people contracted TB in 2019 and about 6 300 of these succumbed to the disease.
In 2019, an estimated 1 200 patients diagnosed with TB cases had drug resistant TB. -@thamamoe