The World Tuberculosis Day

Mudavadi presides over the World Tuberculosis Day in Uasin Gishu, calls for collaboration to end TB in Kenya.

Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi has today commissioned the County Referral Laboratory at the Huruma Sub County Hospital in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, where he presided over the World Tuberculosis Day celebrations at the Huruma grounds.

Mudavadi who represented President William Ruto at the celebrations, says the government has taken cognizant of the rising cases of Tuberculosis in the country and through the ministry of health it aims to ensure prevention and cure of the disease are given a key priority within the health sector.

“We need to aggressively pursue timely diagnosis and treatment as we thrive to put in place preventive and protective measures against Tuberculosis which is one of the leading causes of death among infectious diseases in Kenya.” said Mudavadi.

Mudavadi who read President William Ruto’s speech at the celebrations pointed out that TB is the 4th leading cause of death among the infectious diseases in Kenya and the burden for TB, TB/HIV and Drug- Resistant TB remains high.

While acknowledging the government having made progressive strides towards reducing the TB burden, the Prime Cabinet Secretary emphasized on the need to develop a continuous approach in fighting the disease.

He said this can be achieved through robust multisectoral partnerships, increased domestic resource allocation for TB programming, rapid adoption of innovations and adherence to the global WHO guidelines recommendations.

“Expansion of TB diagnostic capacities and improved integration of TB services into other programs by ensuring access to quality TB services for all should remain a key priority as the Ministry of Health continues to put in place mechanisms to curb the spread of TB” said Mudavadi.

Mudavadi in reference to President William Ruto’s speech during today’s celebrations of the World Tuberculosis Day, further pointed out that as far as TB is treatable and curable, In Kenya, recent estimates show that 133,000 people have developed TB, among them 16,000 Children. This he said is a huge burden on the health system, and a major barrier to economic development in the country.

Globally, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 10.1 million in 2020, reversing years of a slow decline. In Kenya in 2022, the Ministry of Health reported 90,841 TB cases compared to 77,854 cases in 2021.

“The COVID-19 pandemic reversed progress made in the years up to 2019 and set global TB targets off track. The reductions in the reported number of people diagnosed with TB in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic suggest that the number of people with undiagnosed and untreated TB has grown. This has resulted in an increased number of TB deaths, community transmission of infection and numbers of people developing TB.” President William Ruto’s speech read in part.

The Presidents’ speech also outlined that the government of Kenya, in collaboration with her partners both locally and internationally, has invested in critical components of TB care and management by Expanding and strengthening access to the TB diagnostic network and services through the introduction of high-end diagnostic equipment and Introducing Digital Adherence Technology in support of drug adherence and providing preventative treatment for people at high risk of contracting TB.

The Presidents’ speech emphasized that there is a cue towards development, rollout and sustenance of awareness campaigns to create demand for TB services, and treatment completion, Strengthening the public-private mix, offering free diagnosis and treatment to all our TB clients and providing financial and technical support to health care providers

The Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha who was present said that the government through her ministry is working on modalities to ensure that healthcare becomes affordable to all Kenyans.

She has warned cartels who have been advantage of poor Kenyans, exploiting them and circumventing the order of priority in the health sector through dubious procurement deals of drugs and medical equipment thus costing the exchequer billions of shillings that their days are numbered.

“I want to assure the President and his administration that in the health sector we are on track and we will deliver to the people of Kenya. The NHIF programme under the Kenya Kwanza PLAN will be a game changer and the journey has begun.”

“We want to use this day to benchmark on how we are going to prioritise healthcare for all Kenyans. We will not only concentrate on the infectious diseases like TB but we have to spread the wings and look at how to end many of these diseases by the year 2030.” said Principal Secretary Josephine Mburu.

Mudavadi also used the celebrations and called upon the players in the health sector to pursue aggressively adopting the Swahili language and other vernacular languages as a mode of communication while providing treatment and other health care services to Mwananchi. He says the first role in curing people should be communication and he urged the health sector players in totality to embrace simplifying the communication to mwananchi in order to achieve maximum results when delivering medical services.

“Serikali kupitia baraza la mawaziri imepitisha kauli kwamba ni sharti tuanza kuiga lugha ya Kiswahili na kuangazia umuhimu wa lugha hiyo kwenye shughuli na mawasiliano rasmi ya serikali. Ndio maana ninatoa wito kwa wahudumu na wadau katika sekta ya afya kuanza kutilia mkazo suala la kuhakikisha kila mkenya anaelewa kwa urahisi masuala mabayo yanaweza kuwa magumu ukimuelezea mkenya au mgonjwa katika lugha ya kimombo ile tunaita medical language.” Said Mudavadi in his remarks.

The theme for this year’s World TB Day is an urgent call to action: “Yes! We can end TB in Kenya.”. A call for unity of purpose, thought and action. Also present were Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii, Nandi County Governor Stephen Sang, MPs Stephen Mule (Matungulu) and Omboko Milemba (Emuhaya) among other Local and International Partners in the Health Sector.