Addis Ababa, March 25, 2021(WAlta) – World Health Organization (WHO) African Regional Office has stated that governments and partners have to work in collaboration to bridge the health financial gap witnessed this time in the continent.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti disclosed that the collection of sectors have to be made available to fortify synergy against the challenges in relation to TB disease and eradicate the disease at the end of 2030 in Africa.
This is why WHO has developed the multispectral accountability framework and is supporting all countries to update their TB policies and to implement WHO guidelines she added.
“TB prevention and control are significant across the Region. Governments in Africa are contributing 24% of the budget allocated for fighting TB, and international organizations like the Global Fund are providing 34%.
South Africa has the highest domestic funding in the Region,” she noted. “In recent years, some countries have shown significant improvement in such disease. For instance, Kenya, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and the United Republic of Tanzania reduced TB deaths by over 30% between 2015 and 2019.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, and the United Republic of Tanzania reduced new TB cases by 20%. However, overall progress in the WHO African Region remains slower than the milestones set for 2020,” she said.
At the same time, some mitigation measures were introduced, such as limiting the need for TB patients to visit health facilities by providing one month’s worth of TB medicines and using video messaging to continue with the directly observed treatment she stressed, according to the Ethiopian Herald.
World TB Day is marked on 24th March every year with various activities, tasks and this year’s theme marked with the theme, “The clock is ticking” in the world countries.