RISE-Ghana calls for intensified collaboration to end TB

RISE-Ghana, a Non-Governmental Organisation working with Tuberculosis (TB) affected persons in the Upper East Region is calling on for an intensified collaborative efforts to end Tuberculosis in the Region.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Mr Awal Ahmed, Resource Mobilization Adviser of RISE-Ghana and Mr Patrick Asakidingo, a cured TB patient, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Bolgatanga, on Tuesday, as the World observed World Tuberculosis Day.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), approximately nine million people fell ill from TB in 2013, while 1.5 million people died.

“TB’s impact is felt acutely by the most vulnerable populations, including those struggling with poverty and poor health systems,” the statement said.

“With some 37 million lives saved between 2000 and 2013 through the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, consistently million cases are either not diagnosed, not treated, or are diagnosed and not registered by National TB Control Programme”.

The statement indicated that even though significant progress had being made to bring the TB epidemic under control in the Upper East Region, and the country as a whole, TB continued to be a major public health concern.

While commending the Upper East Regional Health Directorate for detecting 644 cases of TB in 2014, which represented 63.8% detection, the organisation urged the Directorate to do more to find the missing cases of at the east 366 cases.

“The missing 366 cases can result into between 3,660 and 5,490 new cases, based on the analogy that one untreated person can infect up to 10-15 per year,” it said.

He called on stakeholders, including chiefs, families, health workers, the Government and the private sector, to do more in intensifying efforts to reach, treat, and cure everyone with TB by paying special attention to vulnerable and underserved areas.

It urged the public, families and the media to overcome TB barriers, correct misconceptions about the disease, promote healthy behaviours and promote adherence to TB treatments to improve cure rates, control the spread of the infection, and minimize the development of drug resistance.