Africa is the only continent where tuberculosis (TB) rates are increasing, with 1,500 TB deaths every day. Tragically and avoidably, 10% of these casualties are children.
TB is a preventable disease linked to poverty. In 2005 it was declared an emergency in Africa. Each year TB claims the lives of half a million Africans, many young and in their most productive years of life. In the past 15 years, overall rates of TB have doubled across the continent and tripled in regions with high HIV rates.
Africa has the highest per capital incidence of TB in the world (28%), with most of the worst affected countries located in sub-Saharan Africa. Those most at risk include the urban poor, migrants and refugees, people who are forced to live in overcrowded conditions.
TB is also a leading killer of HIV-positive people with weakened immune systems. About 200,000 people living with HIV/AIDS die from TB every year, most of them in Africa. Completing a particularly vicious circle, HIV itself has been the single most important factor in the rising incidence of TB in Africa. Treating co-infected people is hard as the drug therapies for each are difficult to combine safely.
Dangerous, drug-resistant strains of TB have also now emerged. This is caused by inconsistent, incorrect treatments being taken, or because of unreliable drug supplies. Not completing a course of treatment is a key cause of this resistance:
Multi-drug-resistant TB is resistant to the two most powerful anti-TB drugs while extensively drug-resistant TB is resistant to ‘second-line’ drugs and is extremely difficult to treat.
AMREF tackling TB
Working alongside local communities, AMREF is training community-based health workers on preventing, diagnosing and treating TB. In South Africa AMREF is working closely with the ministry of health and traditional healers – the country’s most important front-line health care providers – to decrease TB rates.
Traditional Healers are trained to recognize signs of TB and refer these patients to hospitals.
They are also trained in Directly Observed Treatment Strategy – a method that ensures patients take their medication in the correct way.
The Traditional Healers program has helped identify many cases of HIV/TB co-infected patients, enabling them to get timely treatment. It has also improved the numbers of people completing their treatment properly, and has boosted the rate of early detection.
Learn more about AMREF’s work;
- Preventing and treating new infections of HIV/AIDS
- Educating people about the causes of Malaria
- Improving Maternal Health
- Decreasing Water-borne Diseases
