Zimbabwe records 90 percent success rate in TB treatment

BY NEW ZIANA 

HARARE (New Ziana) - Zimbabwe has reached a 90 percent success rate in the treatment of Tuberculosis (TB), surpassing the global success rate of 80 percent, an official has said.

Image: World Health Organization (WHO) 

Ministry of Health and Child Care deputy director for Aids and TB Units responsible for TB Control, Dr Fungai Kavenga said this while addressing editors and station managers attending a workshop on HIV that the National Aids Council (NAC) held in Chinhoyi recently.

He said over the years, the country has witnessed a slight increase in treatment outcomes for TB, as people are being successfully treated for the disease, with a global success rate of 80 percent in 2020.

However, globally the treatment success rate is lower for people living with HIV, whose treatment success is 77 percent, compared to 86 percent for the general population, he said.

“So in Zimbabwe, the success rate is sitting at 90 percent, well above the global performance of 80 percent and treatment success for people living with HIV in Zimbabwe is 55 percent,” he said.

Dr Kavenga said in Zimbabwe, TB is currently sitting at 204 cases in every 100 000 people, adding that the country has however managed to reduce the incidence rate over the years from 272 per 100 000 in 2015 to 204 per 100 000 in 2022 he said.

“So we were removed from the top 30 high-burden countries, and we need to continue reducing our TB incidence so that we reach our target of 40 per 100 000 by 2026,” he said.

He said statistics show that males contribute about two-thirds of the disease burden in Zimbabwe and across the world, as they are exposed to TB more than women through economic activities, with mining being the most significant contributor.

Half of the TB patients in Zimbabwe are also co-infected with HIV, with the death rate sitting at 6.7 percent which was reduced from 10 percent in 2018 to 7 percent in 2022, with the target being to have a below 5 percent death rate.

The burden of TB is bigger in Sub-Saharan Africa where Zimbabwe is also located, with poverty, high HIV burden, migration, and under-nutrition being the key drivers, said Dr Kavenga.