adminPatrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
ABOUT 280,000 people are receiving TB treatment in Matabeleland North while thousands others with the disease are spreading it unknowingly, an official said. In an interview on the sidelines of belated provincial World TB Day commemorations at Nkayi High School on Friday, the provincial epidemiologist, Dr Padingani Munekayi, said the challenge facing the province was the many undetected cases spreading TB.
He said they had intensified directly observed treatment, short-course (Dots) as a way of reaching out to many people.
Dots is the name given to the TB control strategy recommended by the World Health Organisation and is the most cost-effective way to stop the spread of TB in communities.
“Once TB has been detected by sputum smear, we quickly put the patient on treatment for about six to eight months. Because the health facilities in the province are far from most people, we have the community Dot observers and it’s working well,” said Dr Munekayi.
He said they were also doing HIV and TB collaboration where they test for both diseases in a patient.
“There is a link in that people with HIV have high chances of getting TB because their defence mechanism is compromised. So we do HIV and TB collaboration. This means that for every TB positive patient we test for HIV and we also test HIV positive persons for TB,” said Dr Munekayi.
Earlier while addressing the people gathered for the commemorations, Dr Christopher Zishiri, country director of International Union Against TB and Lung Disease, said Zimbabwe was one of the 22 high TB disease burden countries in the world.
“TB is among the top 10 causes of adult morbidity and mortality. TB is a leading cause of death among people living with HIV and Aids but it is preventable, curable and treatment is free,” he said.
He said while TB was curable, a lot of people were not aware of its existence in their bodies and were spreading it unknowingly.
“This World TB Day, we call for intensified efforts to find, treat and cure the missing TB cases and make progress towards zero TB deaths, infections, suffering and stigma,” said Dr Zishiri.
He said the government was fully committed to combating the spread of TB.
“In our efforts to find more TB cases, the diagnostic capacity and access to diagnostic services continues to spread. The number of centres performing TB microscopy in the province is 22 and as we speak a total of 5 Gene Xpert machines have been installed at various centres throughout the province,” he said.
Online Reporter