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By G.D. Zaney
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by a small germ (microorganism) called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis.
Coughing for two weeks or more, fever and chills, chest pain, night sweats, difficulty breathing, weight loss, and fatigue most of the time are symptoms of TB.
Exposure to risk factors such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, asthma, smoking and pneumonia exacerbates the risk of TB infection and poor respiratory and respiratory health.
People infected with both TB and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), without treatment, are at risk of death. In other words, tuberculosis – even in case of HIV infection cur is curable, with early medical attention.
Globally considered the most deadly disease in the world, people infected with TB and HIV are at a very high risk of contracting the disease that usually affects the lungs and causes coughing.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) Information Sheet No. 104, which was reviewed in March 2014 and evaluated in April 2014, 8.6 million people worldwide were living with HIV. Tuberculosis in 2012, of which 1.3 million, mainly low- and middle-income country people, died as a result of the disease.
Tuberculosis has become a major development challenge in the African region, including Ghana, causing great human suffering and serious setbacks to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Although the 2018 WHO report indicates that the burden of disease caused by tuberculosis is decreasing worldwide in all parts of the WHO and in many other countries, this decline would not be enough fast to reach the milestone 2020 of the TB control strategy.
Drug-resistant TB has also been identified as a growing challenge. The latest global surveillance (2016) of TB drug resistance showed that 4.1% of new TB cases and 19% of TB cases already treated worldwide were rifampicin or multiple drugs. resistant TB (MDR-TB / RR).
In Ghana, the recent Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey among drug-resistant patients found a prevalence of MDR-TB of 1.5% in new cases and 7% of previously treated cases. This means that all people with TB must be identified and receive appropriate treatment.
At the UN high-level meeting on TB in New York in September 2018, it was agreed by all stakeholders that TB was a global epidemic that needed a global response.
The latest report of the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis also provides a framework for realizing and fulfilling the political commitments made by Heads of State and Government.
To this end, national governments have been urged to increase their investments in tuberculosis care and prevention, with current investments well below levels needed to end the epidemic. here 2030 – target date of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
National governments must also step up their efforts to identify and eliminate the problems that hinder progress in ending the scourge of tuberculosis, as well as to adopt and deploy the most cost-effective policy options and interventions.
In addition, they are required to fund essential tuberculosis control services from national resources and, in accordance with universal health coverage, to ensure that prevention, diagnosis, treatment and treatment services are provided. Guaranteed quality care is available to all.
To end tuberculosis by 2030, universal access to rapid molecular tests recommended by WHO as first-line tests for the diagnosis of all suspected cases of tuberculosis should be guaranteed.
The new drugs and drug combinations recommended by WHO for the treatment of drug-resistant TB should also be adopted. It is important to note that preventive treatment has also been identified as an effective intervention to reduce TB infection.
It therefore calls for the strengthening of civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based systems to provide diagnostic badistance and care where patients live and work, to facilitate access to necessary services and to badist develop.
The year 2019 is important for the GHS as the lead agency of the Ministry of Health in fulfilling UNHLM's tuberculosis control objectives. In 2020, the international community expects the GHS to report on progress made and actions taken to form UNHLM pledges of state leaders in New York.
There is no doubt that the GHS is able to stop and reverse the TB epidemic – its national TB program has developed a major intervention plan – Therapy Tuberculosis Prevention Program (TPT) – which requires USD 13 million per year to fill the funding gap required for the implementation of the plan.
Funding remains to facilitate the research, treatment and cure of all missed tuberculosis cases in order to reach the ultimate goal of ending tuberculosis in Ghana.
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