- Every year, Kenya requires at least Sh10 billion to provide care to the more than 100,000 people who contract the disease.
- Under the WHO End TB Strategy, countries should aim to reduce TB cases by 80 per cent and cut deaths by 90 per cent by 2030 compared with 2015.
Poor funding for TB control is jeopardising efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030, a new assessment shows.
Every year, Kenya requires at least Sh10 billion to provide care to the more than 100,000 people who contract the disease.
A past Global Tuberculosis Report said the country faces a deficit of Sh3.8 billion to address the burden.
A new assessment by the World Health Organization said the shortage of funding is rampant across Africa.
WHO said every year, the African region requires at least $1.3 billion (Sh150 billion) for TB prevention and treatment.
However, countries contribute 22 per cent of the needed budget while external funding accounts for 34 per cent.
The rest of the budget remains unfunded, seriously undermining the efforts to eliminate the disease, WHO said.
In Kenya, funding for TB is mostly provided by the government, the Global Fund and other donors. In 2021, USAID contributed Sh689 million for TB treatment and prevention.
WHO said underfunding for TB programmes has a significant impact on disease detection.
The Ministry of Health said on average only about 60 per cent of cases in Kenya were detected and enrolled on treatment between 2015 and 2020.
“The road to ending tuberculosis is likely to get long and hard as key milestones risk being missed," WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moetisaid said in a statement.
"Countries must scale up and speed up the response and stay committed to alleviating the suffering and death caused to millions of people due to tuberculosis.”
She said Africa has so far made good progress against tuberculosis and cannot afford to lose focus on what is needed to ease the burden and save lives.
“Tuberculosis is preventable and treatable, and millions of lives have been saved.
"We must end the chronic underinvestment that keeps the tuberculosis burden high, leaves a huge number of cases undetected and undermines prevention and treatment."
The WHO assessment, released by the Africa regional office, shows Covid-19 pandemic has also slowed progress against TB. Globally, deaths from TB rose for the first time in a decade.
Africa reported 549, 000 deaths in 2020, an increase of around 2,000 in 2019.
Additionally, 28 per cent fewer patients with drug-resistant TB were detected in Africa in 2020 compared with the previous year.
The African region is home to 17 of the 30 high-burden TB countries globally.
The estimated 2.5 million cases in the region in 2020 accounted for a quarter of the global burden, with more than half a million African lives sadly lost to this curable and preventable disease.
Under the WHO End TB Strategy, countries should aim to reduce TB cases by 80 per cent and cut deaths by 90 per cent by 2030 compared with 2015.
The strategy also sets key milestones that countries should cross by 2020 and 2025 if they are to end the disease.
The 2025 milestone seeks a 50 per cent reduction in cases and a 75 per cent decline in deaths.
TB cases should also drop by 10 per cent every year to meet the 2025 target, yet the current rate of decline in cases stands at two per cent. From 2025 to 2030 countries should reduce cases by 17 per cent every year.
WHO said no country in Africa has yet demonstrated that it has met these targets.
(edited by Amol Awuor)