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Speaking at a media workshop on TB and HIV and Aids in Kadoma last week, the Deputy Director of HIV and Aids/TB in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Charles Sandy, said apart from being linked to HIV and Aids, the incidence of TB in the region was worsened by declining standards of living.

The workshop was organised by the Southern Africa HIV and Aids Information Dissemination Service (SafAids).
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest per capita burden of TB in the world due to poverty,” he said.
“Therefore, it is important to address social issues like housing to reduce spending on drugs.

“For example, the decline of TB in Western countries was achieved well before a cure was found in the 1950s and this could be attributed to improved social service delivery.”
Dr Sandy said his ministry sought to eradicate the disease in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG6 — Target 8).
He said prioritising the social needs of communities would give greater impetus to the fight against TB.

Ms Rene Loewenson of the Training and Research Support Centre endorsed Dr Sandy’s sentiments.
Speaking at last Friday’s launch of the Zimbabwe Health Sector Investment Case at Harare Central Hospital in the capital, she said “some environments made people sick”.
“We would also want to see the improvement of basic social services for the communities,” she said.

“It’s very impossible for hospitals to treat people and send them back to the same environments that will make them sick again.”
Speaking at the same occasion where she was guest of honour, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe said restoring basic services was one of Government’s major priorities.
The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s latest estimates indicate that although South-East Asia had the largest percentage (34 percent) of new TB infections in 2008, sub-Saharan Africa had an incidence rate of 350 people with TB in every 100 000, a figure twice as much as that of South-East Asia.

The highest per capita mortality rate was also recorded in Africa, accounting for 30 percent of the total number of people who died from TB during the same period.
In its Global Plan to stop TB (2006-2015), WHO states that addressing the needs of poor and vulnerable populations is central to achieving the targets set for 2015.
Zimbabwe is currently reeling under an escalating number of TB cases. Latest health information shows that TB poses a lethal threat to people whose immune system has been weakened by HIV.
TB is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis and is spread mainly in moist air when an infected person coughs.

Experts say infection can greatly be reduced if people keep the windows of their houses open to allow free air circulation and to also allow sunlight in.
The bacteria dies when exposed to sunlight. TB testing and treatment is free in Zimbabwe.