World TB Day: Mozambique registers 159,000 cases per year

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World TB Day: Mozambique registers 159,000 cases per year

10:04 CAT | 26 Mar 2018

File photo: Jornal Domingo

Mozambique registers an estimated 159,000 new cases of tuberculosis infection and about 22,000 deaths every year, putting it in the World Health Organisation’s list of 30 TB high-burden countries (HBCs).

This grim statistic surfaced on Saturday during World Tuberculosis Day activities at Machava General Hospital, Mozambique’s largest tuberculosis treatment unit.

Speaking at the meeting, held under the motto: ‘Wanted: Leaders for a TB-Free World’, Health Minister Nazira Abdula said that currently 4 out of 10 tuberculosis cases in the country remain undiagnosed and untreated, but that, the country was on track to secure global targets for the elimination of the disease by 2030 nonetheless.

The health minister highlighted the impact of different actions undertaken to eliminate the disease and emphasised improvements in work coordinated with community stakeholders.

Last year, Mozambique diagnosed, notified and began treatment of 86,434 patients with tuberculosis. In the same period of 2016 it began treatment of 73,470 cases, of which 11,198 were children and 943 were cases of drug resistant tuberculosis. According to comments from the health sector, the increase in cases diagnosed last year reflects improvements in diagnostic capacity and awareness work in communities.

“Our interventions have also enabled us to successfully treat about 90 percent of tuberculosis patients and to place 95 percent of patients infected with double TB/HIV infection in antiretroviral treatment,” Abdula said.

Source: Domingo