Chronicle Editor
Michell Zvanyanya, Chronicle Reporter
TUBERCULOSIS (TB) treatment coverage has increased by 13 percent in the country for the past five years resulting in incidence and mortality rates among TB patients declining, The Ministry of Health and Child Care has revealed.
In a statement, the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Obadiah Moyo, said TB treatment coverage in the country now stands at 83 percent, up from 70 percent in 2014.
He said the increase shows that the number of interventions being rolled out by the Government to fight TB are bearing fruit.
Dr Moyo said in 2014, the country received more than $25 million from Challenge TB through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), a five-year global funding to help scale up prevention and treatment of TB in the country.
He said the funds enabled the Ministry to mobilise adequate resources to fight the infectious disease.
“Zimbabwe is one of the 19 countries whose TB control campaigns were awarded more than $25 million through Challenge TB (CTB), the new funding mechanism for global TB response launched by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Over the five-year life span of CTB we now celebrate some collective strides in the national response. Our estimated treatment coverage now stands at 83 percent, up from 70 percent in 2014,” said Dr Moyo.
Dr Christopher Zishiri from The Union, an international health organisation, said the increase in TB treatment coverage has further resulted in the decline in the incidence and mortality rates among TB patients by 25 percent and 49 percent respectively.
“The antiretroviral therapy uptake among co-infected patients has also increased from 68 percent in 2014 to 91 percent. The HIV prevalence among TB patients has also declined from 68 percent to 62 percent,” he said.
In December last year, Government said it will roll out new tuberculosis (TB) preventive therapy this year as a strategy to fight the disease.-@michellzvanyanyan2
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter