Africa-Press – Botswana. The African Union (AU) and the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday called for “urgent measures” to combat tuberculosis in children in Africa, a continent that accumulates a third of the cases of this disease in children under 15 years of age.
“The tuberculosis epidemic in children in Africa has been in the shadows and has been largely ignored until now. We hope that this call will galvanize action and ensure that no child in Africa dies from a disease that in many parts of the world is now a thing of the past.” , said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO director for Africa.
In addition, the two institutions expressed their concern about the huge proportion – around two thirds in the case of children under 15 years old – of tuberculosis infections in Africa that are never diagnosed.
“The low detection of tuberculosis stems from the challenges in collecting samples. (…) In addition, children and young adolescents often have access to health services in establishments where the ability to diagnose this disease is often limited”, they refer the AU and WHO in a joint communiqué.
“There is an urgent need for innovative interventions to integrate tuberculosis diagnosis into nutrition programs to rapidly identify the disease in children,” said AU Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, Minata Samate Cessouma.
Although there are treatments to cure the disease, “a child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes”, lamented the executive director of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Stop TB Partnership, Lucica Ditiu, who joined the AU’s appeal and from WHO.
To combat tuberculosis, these institutions asked African countries to increase funding for the prevention and control of this disease, as well as more technical and human resources to accelerate its eradication.
The WHO estimates that the African continent must spend at least 1.3 billion dollars (same amount in euros) annually for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.
However, African countries spend only 22% of this amount, while their cooperation partners spend only 34%.
Representatives from several African countries are meeting this week in Lomé, capital of Togo, on the occasion of a new session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, which this year is holding its 72nd edition.
Worldwide, tuberculosis is the 13th cause of death and the deadliest infectious disease after covid-19 (it is above HIV/AIDS), according to the WHO.
It is caused by a bacterium that affects the lungs and is spread from person to person through the air when a person with pulmonary tuberculosis coughs, sneezes or spits.
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