First Lady Monica Chakwera says Malawi has made significant progress to eliminate cases of Tuberculosis (TB) for the past years.
Chakwera said this during the End Tuberculosis Innovation Summit held in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) conference.
She said TB incidences have been reduced from 197 per 100,000 people in 2015 to 125 per 100,000 in 2022.
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Chakwera expressed concerned over women and girls in rural areas who walk long distances to access quality treatment hence encourage door to door treatment to ensure that patients are diagnosed early.
She said: “TB strategies of such as mobile diagnostics, community sputum collection, door to door screening are enablers to end TB by 2030.
She added that challenges such as lack of resources and poor service delivery require collective efforts to mobilize and adequately implement strategies that will help end TB.
She, therefore, appealed for more support from various stakeholders and international institutions saying it help will boost the program and service delivery for Malawi to achieve TB elimination.
In his remarks Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Jae Wook Choi, ambassador of Global Health security said the summit has been at the forefront of the fight against TB for over a decade now.
“Let us all be united and commit ourselves to bridge the gap and strengthen the growing and thriving TB innovations ecosystem to eliminate TB,” he said.
He said the strategy of fighting TB which includes prevention, preparedness and response are paramount hence the need to advance science finance and innovation to ensure more access to quality treatment testing as well as care.
The global plan to End TB 2023 – 2030 is a plan for ending TB as a challenge by 2030. It brings together leaders in the TB and global health space that includes donors, new stakeholder funders as well as innovators.
By Lisa Kadango Malango
