Mozambique: Country had 98,485 TB cases in 2021, down from 115,000 in 2020 – PM

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Mozambique: Country had 98,485 TB cases in 2021, down from 115,000 in 2020 – PM

2:58 CAT | 25 Mar 2022

File photo: Lusa

The number of cases of tuberculosis diagnosed in 2021 in Mozambique has fallen to 98,485, after reaching 115,000 in 2020, the country’s prime minister, Adriano Maleiane, has said.

Maleiane was speaking during the inauguration on Thursday of a centre of excellence dedicated to drug-resistant tuberculosis in Matola, a suburb of Maputo, in a ceremony to mark World Tuberculosis Day, and cited World Health Organisation targets.

“Our country has reduced, by 2020, the number of deaths from tuberculosis by about 55 percent, thus exceeding the global target of 35 percent reduction in mortality set by WHO … based on 2015 records,” he said.

Maleiane said that 84% of cases of the disease diagnosed in 2020 had been treated, and that this “put Mozambique on the list of countries with the best treatment coverage for this disease worldwide.”

He said that the government was committed to increasing funding for the treatment of tuberculosis, which has risen from around 1% of the total budget allocated to the health sector in 2011 to 12% in 2020.

In the fight against the disease, he said, Mozambique focuses its action on three pillars: prevention and integrated care, multi-sectoral policies and intensification of research and innovation. However, he stressed, Mozambique still has many challenges ahead, mainly at the level of prevention and treatment.

“The challenges we still have to overcome are related to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, the diagnosis of this disease in children, the poor coverage and access to tuberculosis services that the population at high risk faces,” he said, adding that the severity of the disease in Mozambique is aggravated by the negative impact of HIV/AIDS.

The centre of excellence inaugurated on Thursday is the first in the country and was built with the support of the World Bank.

Source: Lusa