BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– Tuberculosis (TB) elimination would have widespread health, economic, and social benefits for the Kingdom of Eswatini.
The United States Of America (USA) has shared that ending TB in the US and Eswatini requires maintaining and strengthening current TB control priorities while increasing efforts to identify and treat latent TB infection among high-risk populations.
Through the Embassy the US revealed that its Government is committed to eliminating tuberculosis, but this cannot be possible when children are still left behind.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1.1 million children ages 0-14 years suffer from tuberculosis (TB), yet less than 50 percent are accurately diagnosed often leading to untimely and unnecessary death.
“ The TB GAPS study that we are launching today is a US $5 Million ( E86 263 150) research initiative funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is being implemented in five sub-Saharan African countries,” read a statement from the Embassy.
In addition to that the US government mentioned that, they can bridge the remaining gaps in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of childhood TB.
According to the US one child with TB an entirely preventable and curable disease is one child too many. Worth noting is that this initiative has the potential to save the lives of millions of children with TB.
In efforts to eliminate the number of lives lost due to tuberculosis, the Ministry of Health, through funding from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, launched an E87 million ($5 million) TB study gap. The study will identify the TB services gaps in Eswatini and four other African countries in the next three years. Baylor College of Medicine will be leading the implementation of the study.
