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TB an urgent National Emergency, says PM

25/03/2011 00:00:00 NIKITA GELDENHUYS

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MBABANE – The Prime Minister, Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini, has declared tuberculosis (TB) an urgent National Emergency.

Dlamini signed the declaration at the Mavuso Trade Centre in Manzini yesterday. It directs government to immediately start emergency procedures to control the epidemic.

Swaziland currently has the highest per capita TB burden in the world.

The event, which also commemorated World TB Day, was attended by the Minister of Health, international and local agencies which currently assist the government with TB control.

"This country’s Declaration of National Emergency is a carefully prepared statement signifying the resolute commitment of His Majesty’s Government to intensify the fight, not only against the ancient disease of TB...but also against the newly-emerging TB/HIV dual epidemic," the PM said, before signing the declaration.

The declaration orders government to control serious TB cases in health facilities, to make sure laboratories work efficiently and to get ARVs to people who need them. It also instructs government to use more private health services and to train more nurses.

The Minister of Health, Benedict Xaba, said yesterday’s declaration marked a historic moment in Swaziland’s fight against TB. "The significance of this day lies in the fact that, more than ever before, His Majesty’s Government is renewing its commitment towards the fight against TB with the view of alleviating suffering and unnecessary death," he said.

Xaba said the dramatic increase in TB cases in the country and emerging cases of drug-resistant TB had driven the ministry to declare the epidemic an emergency. "The magnitude of the tuberculosis problem in the country has reached such a proportion that it demands extraordinary action to contain it," the Minister said.

This new TB and TB/HIV Emergency Response Plan will be financed by a grant from the Global Fund, an organisation supporting health programmes worldwide. Swaziland received US$40 million from the fund to treat people in the country infected with TB over the next five years, the National TB Control Programme explained earlier.

TB an adversary

MBABANE – World TB Day commemorates breakthroughs in treating the illness, but it is still taking too many lives.

Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini said the scientist Robert Kock, who discovered the cause of TB 129 years ago, would have been shocked to find the disease is still killing so many people. At yesterday’s commemoration of World TB Day at the Mavuso Trade Centre in Manzini, he said TB had proven difficult to control.

"TB has proved to be a formidable adversary – very much a moving target – not least through the emergence of new drug-resistant strains, as well as through its close link with HIV," he said of the fight against the illness in Swaziland.

He said TB remains a significant public health challenge across the world, taking 1.7 million lives each year. He explained, however, many more are cured of the disease and the speed at which cases are identified have increased since Kock’s day.

"It is not surprising, therefore, that the theme of this year’s World TB Day conveys an ambitious message – ‘On the move against TB; transforming the fight against TB towards elimination’," the PM said. The government’s declaration of TB as a state of emergency is aimed at moving faster to control TB.

"The Declaration articulates our government’s commitment to developing strategies to control the TB epidemic," the PM said. But Chairperson of the new STOP TB Partnership Board, Dr. Muyabla Munachitombwe, pointed out earlier that TB programmes should not only be aimed at control.

"It should be an elimination programme, not a control programme. Focus should be on prevention," he said.

...SD told to scale up TB prevention

MBABANE - The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Swaziland needs to scale up its prevention of TB.

The organisation has noted that TB is still a major problem in Swaziland. WHO Country Representative Dr Owen Kaluwa said HIV is one of the main drivers behind the TB problem in Africa. "While HIV continues to drive the epidemic," Dr Kaluwa said, "global control efforts are being threatened by the emergence of strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to treatment." He pointed out that Swaziland needs to scale up its prevention of TB which is resistant to medicine. According to him World TB Day should remind people of patients who died because of a disease which does not have to be fatal.

"It is important to note that treatment for tuberculosis remains one of the most cost-effective health care interventions," Dr Kaluwa said. "We should therefore all be encouraged, government and partners alike, to invest more in TB control efforts."