25 Jul Cambodia and Nigeria Review Strides Made in the Fight against TB
[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_separator type=”normal” thickness=”2″ up=”20″ down=”20″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”nivo” interval=”3″ images=”2830,2831″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]In June, the Kingdom of Cambodia held a TB joint program review. The meeting included all major donors, technical agencies and partners to discuss progress and challenges in the TB response. The two-week review culminated in a day long dissemination workshop featuring representatives from the 24 provinces, and the respective districts and communes from those provinces, from across the country.
13,000 Cambodians die of TB annually and around 60% of Cambodians carry the TB bacterium. Maintaining detection and cure rates remain a priority. But in addition, scaling up active case finding, scaling up access to high quality diagnostics, scaling up community-based service delivery, and the need for ensuring tailored services, and related advocacy, for mobile and migrant populations, PLHIV, prisoners and urban poor were explored.
TB REACH supported active case-finding was profiled, Global Drug Facility support was acknowledged and the Community, Rights & Gender Assessment supported by Stop TB Partnership was an important reference for discussions and JPR recommendations.
In the same month, Nigeria held the first ever TB, HIV and Malaria joint program review. The meeting included all major donors and partners to discuss progress and challenges for each disease. State programs were invited and participated in the 3-day review.
There is much work to be done in TB, where about 300,000 people with TB are missed by the current approaches. In 2018 Nigeria saw a large increase in the number of childhood TB cases but adult notifications remained stagnant. Nigeria has just begun a new, ambitious Global Fund grant for TB and very early results from the first quarter of the year offer some hope for solid gains in 2019, but each state will have to contribute to the gains.
A couple of the larger initiatives in the new grant focus on new ways to engage the large private sector, and a comprehensive and active case finding in Lagos. Stop TB, WHO and other partners like KNCV are providing support to the push for improved case detection, and initiatives like TB REACH are demonstrating that large gains in case detection can be made by focusing efforts and resources to marginalized groups.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]