By Mike Van Kamande:
Ministry of Health through National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Elimination Programme (NTLEP) has received rare reviews at the ongoing East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) forum in Kigali Rwanda for innovative and effective interventions in TB management.
ECSA-HC Director General, Yoswa Dambisya said Malawi has performed extremely well on improving TB laboratory diagnostic services – one of the main areas the World Bank-funded Southern Africa Tuberculosis Health Support System Project (SATBHSS) focused on.
“The improvement in the rating of the laboratories which have shown progressive improvement including the National TB Reference Laboratory which was accredited by International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is extremely important. This means that the criteria for quality control including good facilities and equipment, quick turnaround time for samples and sample referral systems have contributed in TB detection,” he said.
Senior Occupation Safety and Health specialist for African Union Development Agency (AUDA-Nepad), the developmental arm of the AU, said as one of the original implementing partners of the project, its main areas of operation are occupational safety and health, occupational lung diseases and TB control in the mines.
Ministry of Health Principal Secretary responsible for administration, Benson Chisamile said four Malawi laboratories have been accredited by the ISO and has also innovated the web-based Tuberculosis e-health which has helped track and manage TB patients thereby increasing treatment adherence.
NTLEP manager, James Mpunga said Malawi has received good feedback on disease surveillance and response from the World Bank team despite challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Despite performing well Malawi needs to work on sustainability because the domestic envelope is shrinking as we rely heavily on donors. Moving forward we need to sustain the gains using local resources and perhaps new partners,” he said.
