• TB is the fifth leading cause of death in Kenya, which is ranked among the world’s 30 nations with a high burden of the disease.
• The global reduction in the number of TB deaths between 2015 and 2019 was 14 per cent.
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Kenya has a Sh3.8 billion funding gap for tuberculosis programmes, a new report by the World Health Organization shows.
The Global Tuberculosis Report estimates the global deficit in 2020 was Sh1.6 trillion— the highest shortfall reported to date — from Sh1.3 trillion in 2019 and Sh900 billion in 2015.
Overall, lower-middle-income countries accounted for 57 per cent reported gap in 2020, with the largest gap reported by Nigeria at Sh26.8 billion.
Tanzania has a funding gap of Sh3.5 billion, Ethiopia Sh4.7 billion, the Democratic Republic of Congo Sh1.6 billion and Uganda Sh1.4 billion.
“Some budgets have also been revised downwards in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and reallocation of funds from TB to the Covid-19 response has been reported by several countries like in Georgia, Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia and Zambia,” the report states.
TB is the fifth leading cause of death in Kenya, which is ranked among the world’s 30 nations with a high burden of the disease. The top 30 account for more than 80 per cent of world cases.
The report, however, notes that Kenya is among seven high-burden countries that have already reached the 2020 milestone of hitting a 20 per cent reduction in TB incidence between 2015 and this year.
Kenya is also among countries that have achieved the target of reducing TB deaths by 35 per cent between 2015 and 2019.
“Improvements are still needed in the detection of active TB disease among people living with HIV, coverage of HIV testing among TB patients and enrolment of HIV-positive TB patients in ART,” the report states.
The number of people newly enrolled in HIV care in 2019 was 149,524, while those who were notified as a TB case were 6,722.
People living with HIV put on antiretroviral treatment were 151,815, while the number of people put on TB preventive treatment was 124,469, representing 82 per cent coverage.
In addition, whereas the estimated number of child contacts under five years of age-eligible for TB preventive treatment is 20,000, only 7,713 were put on TB preventive treatment.
TB is a major cause of ill health, one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent ranking above HIV-Aids since 2007.
Globally in 2019, about 10 million people fell ill with TB, with 1.2 million TB deaths among HIV-negative people and an additional 208,000 deaths among HIV-positive people.
The global reduction in the number of TB deaths between 2015 and 2019 was 14 per cent. Five risk factors for TB cases are undernourishment, smoking, HIV infection, diabetes and alcohol abuse.
In Kenya, the report estimates that more than 55 per cent of cases are attributed to undernourishment, more than five per cent to smoking, more than 35 per cent to HIV infection, five per cent to diabetes and 10 per cent to alcohol use disorders.
“Faster reductions in TB incidence and deaths require improvements in access to diagnosis and care within the context of progress towards universal health coverage and new treatment or vaccine to substantially lower the risk of developing TB in people who have a latent TB infection,” it states.
“The BCG vaccine remains the only licensed vaccine against TB; it provides moderate protection against severe forms of TB (TB meningitis and miliary TB) in infants and young children.”
The WHO recommends that in countries with a high TB burden, a single dose of the BCG vaccine should be provided to all infants as soon as possible after birth, as part of childhood immunisation programmes.
In countries with low TB incidence, provision of the BCG vaccine may be limited to neonates and infants in recognised high-risk groups, or to older children who are skin-test negative for TB infection.
Currently, the government procures vaccines for polio, tetanus, BCG and measles and pays Sh20 per dose to co-finance Gavi support for pentavalent, PCV10, rotavirus and yellow fever vaccines.
Edited by F'Orieny