As the world prepares for the second United Nations High -Level Meeting on Tuberculosis in New York, African leaders have been urged to participate in the meeting to fundraise for the fight against TB.
The statement was made on Friday at a breakfast meeting which was organized by The Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and Facilitators of Community Transformation (FACT) on Friday in Lilongwe.
Speaking with reporters, Director of Quality Management and Medical Logistics at AHF Lydia Buzaalirwa said that the upcoming meeting on TB provides an opportunity for world leaders to undertake a comprehensive review of the progress made from the agreed TB targets set in 2018.
She added that funding is needed in order to improve the diagnosis, treatment, follow up treatment and management of Tuberculosis both at community and health facility level.
“We also want to motivate and consider the issue of integration of TB services including general, routine health services for example immunization, maternal and child health as well as integration of TB and HIV services at a facility health service level,” Buzaalirwa explained.
On his part, Head of Programmes at Facilitators of Community Transformation (FACT) Aggrey Munthali said that the high level meeting is a platform to identify gaps, discuss solutions to accelerate progress towards ending the epidemic by 2030, and pledge to do more to achieve the set target.
A TB survivor Gwetsani Diffart from Mponera Lumbadzi TB Club who was diagnosed with TB in 2001 encouraged those who are on treatment to continue taking drugs so that they can get cured.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) TB Report of 2021, Malawi reported 14,600 cases of TB , with a mortality rate of 15/ 100,000 among HIV-negative individuals and 24/100,000 among HIV- positive individuals in 2021.
