Govt steps up war against tuberculosis

Paidamoyo Chipunza Senior Health Reporter
Government, in partnership with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, has embarked on a national training of health experts in analysing available tuberculosis data for operational efficiency.

Officially opening the training for the health experts in Harare yesterday, Secretary for Health and Child Care Dr Gerald Gwinji said analysing the trends was critical in TB treatment and management.

“Given the available robust monitoring and evaluation tools available within our HIV and TB programmes, there is a huge amount of data that is routinely collected, but limited information is derived from this data to help us understand what we can do better in the provision of health services,” he said.

“This is largely because of limited research capacity among health workers who run our programmes.” Dr Gwinji said the training programme would go a long way in enhancing the capacity of health professionals running the national tuberculosis programme to understand the disease pattern.

He said Government was looking forward to seeing the training being cascaded to district level where the skills were required most. “The limited resources available to tackle these epidemics means that we need to ensure that our health care delivery system is efficient and effective in targeting, screening, diagnosing and treating affected cases, as well as strengthening our prevention strategies,” said Dr Gwinji.

Speaking at the same occasion, the union’s director for operational research, Dr Ajay Kumar, said the training programme would run for a year, after which participants would be asked to write papers on research they would have done for publication in medical journals.

Dr Kumar said three groups of 12 members were expected to undergo the training over the next three years.

Tuberculosis remains a major public health threat in Zimbabwe while HIV has worsened the condition of people with TB.

New strains of TB that are difficult to treat with ordinary drugs are also being reported throughout the country.