On March 24, Ghana joined the international community in commemorating World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, with stakeholders pressing the government to increase funding for a national TB program.
This is because, although tuberculosis is curable and treatment is free, the country loses roughly 15,000 individuals each year to the disease.
The mortality rate has been attributed to a large number of undiagnosed cases of infectious disease.
Every year on March 24, World Tuberculosis Day is commemorated to raise public awareness of the devastating health, social, and economic consequences as well as efforts to combat the global epidemic.
“Invest to End TB, Save Lives” was the theme of this year’s commemoration.
Testing
Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, urged individuals to get checked, particularly those who had frequent coughs.
He said the government has shown its commitment to eradicating the illness by purchasing GeneXpert Cartridges, which will be used to test all suspected TB cases.
The minister also stated that a multi-drug resistance (MDR) facility is being built to help with the country’s ‘End TB’ mission.
“The government will further accelerate the TB case detection phase two project by equipping 150 district hospitals with digital X-ray and artificial intelligence for TB diagnosis.
“All of these investments are aimed at eradicating tuberculosis, which remains a public health threat and pandemic in the country,” he explained.
Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, regarded the commemoration’s theme as suitable because it “underscores the need for both current and future financial security to reinforce our campaign to eradicate TB by 2030.”
“To do so, we’ll need to speed up both preventive and therapeutic TB care.” This, of course, will necessitate investing in our workforce to increase access to critical services, such as TB and COVID-19 tests, to identify and treat all cases of TB and COVID-19.
The GHS had signed performance contracts with its regional directors, according to Dr Kuma-Aboagye, to carry out targeted interventions to find and manage missing TB cases across the country.
“The good news is that tuberculosis is treatable, so everybody who has a cough, which is the most common symptom of the disease, should be checked.” Get tested for TB and demand treatment if you are in close contact with someone with tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Funding gap
Dr. Francis Kasolo, the World Health Organization’s Country Representative in Ghana, said Ghana could learn from other African countries like South Africa, which has gradually raised domestic financing for TB.
“In 2020, South Africa provided 81 per cent of domestic funding to support TB activities. Zambia has increased its domestic funding seven-fold since 2015.
“Increased funding from domestic sources and international donors is urgently needed if we are to counteract a reversal of the significant gains made against TB in the past decades,” he added.
At the current rate of progress, Dr Kasolo said, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of ending the TB epidemic by 2030 might not be achieved.
For his part, the National TB Control Programme Manager, Dr. Yaw Aduse-Poku, said challenges, such as the absence of the GeneXpert for diagnosis in 50 percent of the 260 districts in the country, must be resolved.
“We have a funding gap of $20 million per year. However, with adequate investment, we can end TB in the country,” he said.
