The African Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for immediate and comprehensive measures to end tuberculosis among children in Africa by 2030.
They made the call in a joint statement with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Stop TB Partnership on the sidelines of the Seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti expressed hope that the call would spur actions and “Ensure that no child in Africa is lost to a disease which in many parts of the world is now history
“Strong political leadership, accountability, financial support and global solidarity are critically needed to increase access to effective diagnostics, medications, vaccines and other tools for tuberculosis control.”
According to the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission, Minata Cessouma; “Childhood tuberculosis doubled with malnutrition poses major health challenges in the African Union Member States
“Undernourished children with tuberculosis are susceptible to developing extensive and severe complications. There is an urgent need for innovative interventions to integrate tuberculosis diagnosis in nutrition programmes to identify the disease in children quickly.”
The partners further called on African countries to prioritize funding for tuberculosis prevention and control as well as accelerate progress towards ending the disease in children and adolescents.
They decried that funding for tuberculosis control in Africa remains low, which jeopardizes efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030.
“Ensuring we meaningfully invest in the tools and technologies needed to respond to the tuberculosis pandemic, guarantees that the global health community can save the lives of thousands of people living with or at risk for tuberculosis infection. However, should we fail to prioritize children and adolescents in these efforts, we will ultimately fail at achieving our goal of realizing a future free from tuberculosis,” said Chip Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer of EGPAF.
They disclosed that Africa requires at least US$ 1.3 billion annually for tuberculosis prevention and treatment
“Yet countries contribute 22% of the needed budget while external funding accounts for 34%. The rest of the budget remains unfunded.”
Low Detection Of Tuberculosis
They expressed concern that two-thirds of African children are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, which leads to an increased risk of rapid disease progression and mortality, adding that 19% of tuberculosis cases are associated with malnutrition
“Among children under five just around a third (32%) are diagnosed – the smallest proportion globally.
“The low detection of tuberculosis arises from challenges in specimen collection as well as bacteriological confirmation of the disease among children who can display non-specific clinical symptoms that overlap those of other common childhood diseases. Additionally, children and young adolescents usually access primary health care or child health services in facilities where the capacity to diagnose for tuberculosis is often limited.”
COVID-19
They also called for swift measures to accelerate recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and urged countries to facilitate the scale-up of child-friendly tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and care.
The Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership, Lucica Ditiu, said; “One child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes even though tuberculosis is curable and preventable. Children with tuberculosis are almost never spreading the disease and are always infected by an adult, so their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat tuberculosis in children
They, therefore, called on stakeholders to be committed, united and “Learn from our achievements and mistakes to ensure that an airborne disease hundreds of years old like TB is not a threat for the generations to come.”
PR/PIAK
