Maputo — Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to adopt effective strategies to fight tuberculosis. Speaking on Wednesday in Maputo at a ceremony to mark World Tuberculosis Day, Rosario said implementation of those strategies has contributed to meaningful progress in efforts to control the disease. He said there has […]
Tag: Tuberculosis
The Nigerian Thoracic Society (NTS) has revealed that over 162,000 persons die of tuberculosis in the country annually. This was disclosed to journalists yesterday by the president of Nigerian Thoracic Society, NTS, Professor Prince Ele, to mark this year’s World TB day. Professor Ele who explained that close to 430,000 Nigerians fall ill with the […]
About 1.4 million people lost out on treatment for tuberculosis in 2020 compared with the previous year, because of COVID-19. Every March 24, the World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is commemorated to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global epidemic. Marking […]
This World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, we divert our attention momentarily away from the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) epidemic and refocus on a disease that has plagued us for considerable time, causing mortality of similar proportions seen with SARS-CoV2 in 2020, and close to a billion deaths historically. SARS-CoV2 has been detrimental to TB control efforts with […]
Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most often affect the lungs, has remained a burden in Nigeria. According to the 2018 global TB report, Nigeria is not only among the 30 high burden countries for TB, TB/HIV and multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) but is also ranked 6th among the 30 high […]
Nigeria remains one of the 30 countries globally with the highest burden of tuberculosis. Despite the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Tuberculosis (TB) control programme in Nigeria, the country recorded a 15 per cent increase in TB case notifications in 2020. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, Walter Mulombo, made […]
Though estimates vary and are relatively uncertain, in the region of 360 000 to 390 000 people in South Africa fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) every year. Of these, around 120 000 to 150 000 are never diagnosed. The fact that so many people with TB are never diagnosed is one reason why TB transmission […]
With just a tap of a finger, some people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) can get in touch with a healthcare worker to get support over the phone. This support can both help people to start treatment more quickly and to stay on treatment once they’ve started. It also reduces the need for people to visit […]
An estimated 390 000 people became ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa in 2018, according to the country’s first-ever National TB Prevalence Survey released on Friday. The higher than expected number follows World Health Organization (WHO) figures published in 2020 that estimated that around 360 000 people in the country fell ill with the […]
Abuja — The Minister of state for health, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora has revealed that the care and attention given to HIV, tuberculosis and other ailments have been neglected due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the national briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Monday, the minister, while explaining the impact […]
Around ten million people developed tuberculosis (TB) in 2019. TB is the leading cause of death by an infectious disease globally, causing 1.4 million deaths last year–although in 2020 deaths due to COVID-19 will likely surpass deaths from TB. While there are many factors that contribute to the high rates of TB disease and deaths, […]
Every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), tens of thousands of people who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa are not diagnosed. Globally, of the estimated ten million people who get the disease annually, around four million never receive a positive test. The problem of underdiagnosis was underlined by South Africa’s […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) 2023 Global tuberculosis (TB) report underscores a significant worldwide recovery in the scale-up of TB diagnosis and treatment services in 2022. It shows an encouraging trend starting to reverse the detrimental effects of COVID- 19 disruptions on TB services. Featuring data from 192 countries and areas, the report shows that […]
Detecting tuberculosis early could play a significant role in eradicating the world’s most deadly infectious disease. The World Health Organization says 1.5 million people die from this devastating disease each year. People infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the TB bacteria that attack the lungs, often do not know that they have it until their symptoms become […]
The current treatment for drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB) used in South Africa involves a combination of four antibiotics, last for six months, effectively cures TB, and is dirt cheap. Some people, however, find it hard to complete the full six months of treatment – in some cases due to side effects and in other cases because […]
2023 was a busy year for healthcare in South Africa. There were several policy developments, landmark court cases, important pieces of legislation, and some changes in leadership. Yet, take a step back and not much seems to have changed. Shortages of healthcare workers persist, corruption is still rife, budgets tight, and our health governance crisis […]
A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies. Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) Wednesday announced they’d be investing a combined $550 million into the trial – around $150 million from Wellcome […]
Mrs Tinubu dedicated the investiture to one of her staff, who she said lost his life to the disease, and to others with similar fate. Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has donated N1 billion through the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) to support the fight to end the Tuberculosis epidemic in Nigeria by 2030. Mrs Tinubu […]