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Rumbidzayi Zinyuke Senior Health Reporter
Zimbabwe has moved to address the gaps that still exist in the country’s response to tuberculosis and to ensure that progress towards ending the epidemic by 2030 is accelerated.
Yesterday, the country launched the Multisectoral Accountability Framework (MAF) for tuberculosis (TB), a platform that brings Government and all stakeholders together in tackling the disease.
The MAF-TB is being led by the Ministry of Health and Child Care in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership Zimbabwe, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation (JHWO).
Speaking at the launch, Ministry of Health director public health, Dr Munyaradzi Dobbie said the active participation and involvement of all sectors that contribute to health was highly needed.
“Ending TB remains a priority for the Ministry of health and Child Care. In recent years, Zimbabwe invested in TB by adopting innovative tools and strategies aligned to global best practice.
“These strategies have contributed to sustained gains on key impact and outcome indicators on TB. Despite these notable milestones, the 2021 Global Tuberculosis report made findings that between 2015 and 2020, TB deaths increased by 36 percent compared to 2015 and there were 8 010 deaths in 2020 alone which translates to one person dying every hour.
“Thus, there are still programmatic gaps in TB case finding, including missed opportunities along the TB screening-diagnosis-care cascade, sub-optimum treatment outcomes, compounded by patient delays in seeking care and lack of treatment adherence support even though 80 percent of TB patients experience catastrophic costs,” he said.
To address the gaps and challenges effectively, Dr Dobbie said a multi-sectoral approach was important.
TB remains among leading causes of death in the country even though it is preventable and curable. Zimbabwe was removed from the top eight countries in Africa on the world’s top 30 lists of countries with the triple burden of TB, TB/HIV, and MDR-TB. However, the country remained on the WHO “global TB watch list” for continued attention and support from WHO as a priority country.
Speaking on behalf of WHO Zimbabwe country representative Dr Alex Gasasira, WHO technical officer for TB and HIV Dr Mkhokheli Ngwenya said the MAF-TB was developed following the UN High level meeting on TB that brought together world leaders who committed to accelerating efforts in ending TB and reaching all affected people with prevention, care and support.
“We note that the MoHCC is giving the MAF-TB a very high level of commitment it deserves, especially during the time when there are several other priorities to be addressed. WHO is committed to supporting the MoHCC to assess the baseline status of the components of the MAF-TB; involve officials and stakeholders in adapting the framework; and monitor and review its use,” he said.
He said implementing the MAF-TB was a tremendous accomplishment requiring strong political commitment that the Ministry of Health was clearly demonstrating.
Acting director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care AIDS and TB unit Dr Fungai Kavenga said 80 percent of TB patients in the country still face catastrophic costs while accessing services and the MAF-TB sought to address these.
“Our TB national strategic plan is aligned to our National Health Strategy 2021-2025 which is also aligned to the National Development Strategy. As we are fighting to end TB, our country is not alone, we join the globe and we are guided by the End TB Strategy,” he said.
He said the country had goals to reduce the incidence of all forms of TB by 80 percent from 242 per 100 000 population to 48 cases per 100 000 population by 2025.
It is also seeking to reduce mortality from all forms of TB by 80 percent from 40 per 100 000 to eight per 100 000 population by 2025.
Online Reporter