TB declared African emergency

Regional health ministers unanimously agreed to declare tuberculosis an African emergency, underlining their commitment to fight the epidemic that is killing more than half a million people a year on the world’s poorest continent.

The decision was taken at the 55th session of the World Health Organisation’s Regional Committee for Africa, a week-long meeting in Mozambique attended by ministers from 40 African countries.

The number of new TB cases has quadrupled in 18 African countries since 1990 and continues to rise across the continent, driven by a combination of poverty and the HIV/Aids pandemic. It can be cured with an inexpensive six-month course of treatment.

“Despite commendable efforts by countries and partners to control tuberculosis, their impact has not been significant and the epidemic has now reached unprecedented proportions,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Luis Gomes Sambo said in a statement. “Urgent and extraordinary actions must be taken, or else the situation will only get worse.”

Although Africa has only 11% of the world’s population, it accounts for more than a quarter of the nine million active TB cases and two million deaths caused every year by the disease. It is also the only continent where infection rates are increasing every year.

TB is spread by airborne bacteria that settle in the lungs and cause long-term infection. Many people who are infected do not become ill themselves but can spread it.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, countries like Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi made major strides in implementing the treatment regimen known as DOTS - Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course.

But in the past 15 years, TB incidence has soared due to the link with HIV.

Tuberculosis is the most common infection among – and leading killer of - people living with HIV/Aids.

Of the estimated 25 million Africans with HIV, about eight million also harbour the bacillus that causes TB. Each year, 5-10% of these eight million develop active TB, according to WHO figures.

Expanding access to tuberculosis treatment, combined with introducing HIV testing and anti-retroviral drugs into TB programs, could save thousands of lives a day, health experts say.

But Africa’s efforts to control the epidemic have been hampered by poor funding and weakened health care systems.