The African Union Commission Commemorates World Tuberculosis Day

The African Union Commission (AUC) and under the leadership of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Gambia, and in collaboration with Africa CDC, WHO AFRO, the Global Fund, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and WACI Health commemorated World Tuberculosis Day in Banjul, the Gambia on Friday 24, March 2023.

“If we all fulfil our individual responsibility to ending tuberculosis and direct our efforts towards fulfilling our collective responsibility, then we will certainly make progress towards eliminating TB” – Dr. Momodou T. Nyassi, Director of Medical Health Services, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Health, the Gambia.

The Gambia, like many AU Member States, is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted access to quality TB diagnosis, treatment, and care. Before the pandemic, health care was not affordable for many households across the continent. Several AU Member States, with the support of partner organisations, put in place adapted and functional strategies to accelerate recovery efforts. The significant stigma associated with TB and knowledge gaps on transmission, prevention, and cost of treatment of TB still exists. Focused community-based campaigns to educate people on TB are thus necessary to improve community engagement in the fight against TB. Training and continued re-training of peer educators, also referred to as community and village health workers, to inform the public about TB at every opportunity are also beneficial engagement strategies. This World TB Day thus stands as a moment to reiterate that to end the disease as an epidemic, there should be increased investments in evidence-based, community-centred approaches which will accelerate progress toward ending TB in Africa by 2030.

A key outcome of the commemoration event was presentations on the progress made in the Gambia on TB response by the National Leprosy and Tuberculosis Control Program (NLTP) team. The AU Commission, Africa CDC, and partners present at the event reiterated their commitment to work with the Gambia to capitalise on areas of progress and jointly find solutions to the identified challenges.

H.E Minata Samate Cessouma’s Official Statement: World Tuberculosis Day 2023

24 March 2023, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – As Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development of the African Union Commission (AUC), I join the rest of the world to commemorate the 2023 World Tuberculosis (TB) Day under the theme, “Yes! We Can End TB!”.

The global theme for the day induces a fresh perspective of hope for collective power, attention, and energy to end TB by 2030. The message comes at a time when we are encouraged by ongoing collaborative works between governments, scientists, healthcare workers, development partners and communities to produce more effective TB treatment. All the TB-related policies – AU Agenda 2063, Africa Health Strategy (2016 – 2030) and the Catalytic Framework to End AIDS, TB, and Eliminate Malaria in Africa by 2030 – champion partnership for sustainable development and prosperity in Africa. We must join efforts to ensure that all the hard work is amplified to result in improved TB awareness, prevention, detection, and treatment.

It is well understood that TB infection is influenced by social and economic development determinants such as HIV infection, malnutrition, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use abuse. The significant impact of HIV co-infection among TB patients in Africa calls for stronger integration of TB and HIV-enhanced services. The AU Commission’s social development agenda 2063 is premised on delivering a human-centred approach to promote socioeconomic wellness, human rights and dignity. I believe that addressing the social determinants of health, such as housing, income and access to culturally-appropriate health care, can potentially drive down the TB epidemic. Advancing the implementation of the AU Theme of the Year 2022 on Nutrition and Food Security will also increase food security sustainability, thereby reducing TB disease prevalence.

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“Yes! We Will End TB!”Q&A INTERVIEW: 2023 WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY
By: Prof. Julio RAKOTONIRINA, Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs, African Union Commission

On this World Tuberculosis Day, the world commemorates World Tuberculosis Day under the theme “Yes! We Can End TB”. AIDS Watch Africa (AWA) of the African Union Commission sat with Prof. Julio Rakotonirina, the Director of Health and Humanitarian Affairs at the African Union (AU) Commission to get his view on why it is vital for African Union, its leadership and Member States to reiterate a strong political will to end tuberculosis by 2030.

Why does strong political will matter in the grand scheme of ending tuberculosis (TB) by 2030?
As political leaders brace for emerging threats such as climate change, inflation, food shortages and conflict, priorities shift constantly. We can only be assured that ending a disease will remain a priority when a political actor is willing to commit adequate time, energy, funds and political capital to achieve change, take risks and incur opportunity costs to end the disease.

Additionally, leaders’ reaffirmed commitment to end TB influences the country’s agenda ownership. Without these two factors, we risk not having enough support to inspire national and collective actions, investments and innovations in fighting preventable disease.

The disease mainly affects the 15-45 age group, which is the active population of the nation. The strong political will to end TB could preserve the backbone of the population and protect the country’s economic productivity.

While we reflect on the importance of political will and country ownership, we note that TB is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide, with over 25% of TB-related deaths occurring in Africa. What do you believe are the key factors affecting the TB response in the AU Member States?

One major factor I would point out is the rapid rise of lifestyle diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases are on the rise in Africa. According to the 2022 World Health Organisation (WHO) Non-communicable Disease Progress Monitor, between 50% and 88% of deaths in seven African countries (primarily small island nations) are due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Furthermore, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases is projected to exceed communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional diseases as the most common causes of death by 2030. Expanding the scope of efforts to address non-communicable diseases will go a long way in improving TB response in the AU Member States.

Ensuring access to TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment needs to be key subject matters of discussion this World TB Day and beyond to ensure no more lives are lost to a treatable and curable disease such as TB.

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About AIDS Watch AfricaAIDS Watch Africa (AWA) is a statutory entity of the African Union with a specific mandate to lead advocacy, resource mobilisation and accountability efforts to advance a robust African response to end AIDS, TB and malaria by 2030. AWA was created following a special African Heads of State and Government Summit in April 2001 in Abuja, Nigeria, to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other related infectious diseases. AWA has been critical in helping to catalyse the implementation of successive Abuja Declarations (2000, 2001, 2006, 2013) and other continental health-related policy frameworks which underscore sustained actions to end AIDS, TB and Malaria as public health threats in Africa.

Following the endorsement of the “Addis Ababa Commitments Towards Shared Responsibility and Global Solidarity for Increased Health Financing’’ by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, advocacy for domestic resource mobilisation among AU Member States was added to AWA Secretariat’s mandate.

The Secretariat is domiciled within the Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, AU Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.