Story by Abigirl Tembo, Health Editor
Stakeholders in the health sector are working together to come up with ways of accelerating the fight to end TB by 2030.
Although Zimbabwe was moved from the world’s top 30 list of countries heavily burdened by TB , the country has a double burden of HIV and multiple drug resistant TB, hence the call for a multi-sectoral approach in ending the pandemic.
It is in this light that the Zimbabwe Multi-sectoral Accountability Framework for TB meant to accelerate progress towards ending TB by 2030 was launched in Harare this Tuesday.
Stakeholders in the health sector reckon there is need for concerted efforts as well as increased funding for the country to achieve its goal of ending TB by 2030.
“We need all hands on deck for us to win this fight and end TB by 2030. We can do this. So long we work together,” said the chief director Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Dr Munyaradzi Dhobbie.
World Health Organisation’s Zimbabwe technical officer for TB and HIV, Dr Mkhokheli Ngwenya noted, “To help drive the TB response to save lives and reach the global TB targets, WHO is calling for action on several fronts – an increase in domestic and international investments to close funding gaps for TB implementation and research, a doubling of financing for TB research to drive discovery of new tools including vaccines and to scale up life-saving innovations.”
From more than 36 000 TB incidences in 2015 to 29 000 in 2021, strides continue to be recorded in Zimbabwe’s goal towards ending TB by 2030.
