Kenya improves TB WHO ranking

Kenya has made progress towards tuberculosis (TB) control, the latest World Health Organization (WHO) rankings reveal.

The country is now ranked fifteenth of 22 countries with the highest TB burden countries, which collectively contribute 80% of the global TB burden. Kenya’s new ranking is an improvement from its 2009 position when it was ranked 13th.

With a TB case rate of 338 people per 100,000 in 2006 to 288 people per 100,000 in 2009, Kenya has improved hopes of finally getting out of the high burden countries bracket and achieving its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) TB target by 2015.

However, there is still much work to be done as it is estimated that nearly 32 people die of tuberculosis in Kenya every day. All these deaths are preventable, curable and treatable.

Globally, the WHO estimates that 9.2 million people were diagnosed with TB in 2010. In the same year, 1.1 million people without HIV died from the disease and 0.35 million people living with HIV also died.

The high occurrence of TB disease in Kenya is strongly linked to HIV infection. A HIV positive person is more likely to contract TB as a result of their weakened immune system. WHO reports indicate around 44% of TB patients in Kenya are HIV positive.

TB is also closely linked to poverty as it is the economically and socially disadvantaged groups that stand a higher chance of contracting the disease. The disease affects the most economically productive age group of between 15- 54, which further strengthens the close link between TB and poverty.

Samuel Irungu, a patient at Kenyatta hospital, Nairobi who has multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB), said: “Being a married person with two kids, I was forced to separate ways with my family to curb the spread and infections in the family.

“Circumstance forced me to quit the hotelier profession because of the medication. It [TB] hence becomes a challenge in my daily life due to absence in family provision financially and as a father. There is much stigma from the community level due to the perception of people discriminating, saying one has HIV due to the side effects of the disease.

Samuel added: “As the world marks World TB Day [24 March]…I would urge the government to address on employing counselors in the health facilities to give back to the society by advice and counsel, which will help in zero TB spread.”

Beth Mugo, minister of public health and sanitation, said: “[World TB Day] provides us with an opportunity to come together and identify new and innovative approaches that the country should adopt so as to overcome the challenges that we are facing.

“I am happy to note that since Kenya launched the National TB programme in 1980 considerable progress has been made, enabling Kenya to be on course to meeting Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This is evident as the number of new TB cases reported in the country is declining and many lives have been saved while the spread of the disease is being curbed.”

Ms Mugo confirmed that new measures have been put by the ministry to further reduce transmission of TB in the community through the provision of more rapid and user-friendly TB tests, which can provide results within a day.