Kenya’s ministry of health is set to conduct the first tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey since its independence in 1963.
Dr. Enos Masini, Head of National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Diseases Program, has said that concerted efforts have made towards eradicating the disease, but still some 20,000 cases of the diseases are unrecorded.
"The country has achieved significant success in the fight against tuberculosis, but the battle is not over just yet as many cases of the highly contagious TB disease still go undetected and untreated across the country, hindering the nation’s efforts to attain zero TB infections and deaths," Masini said.
He revealed that the survey that is to cost a total of 3 million U.S. dollars will start in mid July countrywide and will take 10 months to be completed.
Masini observed that the survey will target 100,000 people in urban and rural areas.
"We are interested in knowing the types of TB that exists to help identify what interventions to apply in future management of the disease given that a number of people are undetected and untreated."
Kenya is the first African country to achieve WHO global targets of detecting 70 per cent and treating 85 per cent of the TB cases successfully.
TB is a public problem and it is the fourth largest killer in the Kenya, with close to 1 million people having succumbed to it and over 90 per cent having been treated successfully.
According to Masini, 90,000 people were diagnosed with TB last year, and the major factor responsible for the large TB disease burden in Kenya is the concurrent HIV epidemic.
Other factors that have contributed to this large TB disease burden include poverty and social deprivation that has led to a mushrooming of peri-urban slums, congestion in prisons and limited access to general health care services.
Source: Coastweek