We must kick out Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is one disease that is causing harm to humanity globally and Ghana is no exception in spite of advances in medical science.

To stop the disease from causing further havoc across the world, March 24 every year is commemorated as World TB Day to raise public awareness of the devastating health, social and economic consequences of the disease and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. 

The day highlights the suffering that TB continues to cause people, despite the fact that effective control measures are available worldwide, and mobilises political and social commitment for further progress.

TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.

Symptoms of active TB include a chronic cough, fever, chills, loss of appetite, weight loss and fatigue. While it generally affects the lungs, it can also affect other parts of the body. These symptoms can be mild for many months before becoming severe, which is why timely detection is important.

The disease, although curable, has remained a global menace that afflicts over nine million people each year, of which a third do not have access to treatment as they are “missed” by health systems.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 45,000 people in Ghana fell ill with TB in 2021 and 15,700 people died from the disease in that same year, meaning on a daily basis 123 people in the country contracted TB and 43 people died of it. 

The Daily Graphic commends the GHS and for that matter Ghana as a whole for its success rate in improved cases from 85 per cent in 2020 to 88 per cent in 2021. It is also worth noting that TB patients are being enrolled freely onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as it will help improve people’s ability to seek prompt treatment without financial barriers.

However, we would want to add our voice to the GHS’s call for a lot of advocacy, education and sensitisation to put TB high on the agenda of members of the public.

It is estimated that a third of all notified TB cases were women, with children constituting between five and nine per cent of the recorded cases in Ghana.

The Daily Graphic finds this development unacceptable considering the fact that the disease is preventable and can be cured, and called for closer collaboration between the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the GHS, to address the gender issues associated with the TB epidemic.

It is a well-documented fact that TB is a pro-poor disease that requires stakeholders to find common ground to remove the catastrophic cost on patients.

We also call for an improvement of case finding activities in all the regions to ensure that every infected person is put on treatment. We are not proud of the deaths occurring among TB patients because they are preventable.