African Union and World Health Organization (WHO) Urge Swift Action Against Childhood Tuberculosis – African Business

The World Health Organization and the African Union today called for comprehensive and immediate measures to end tuberculosis, particularly among children in Africa. The appeal was made jointly with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Stop TB Partnership on the side-lines of the Seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo.

The African region is home to 17 of the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis burden globally and accounts for around 322 000 children and young adolescents (aged 0—15 years) or a third of tuberculosis cases among those under 15 years of age worldwide. The region’s two-thirds of tuberculosis cases are not reported to the authorities. This leads to a higher risk of disease progression and mortality in children younger than 15. Among children under five just around a third (32%) are diagnosed – the smallest proportion globally.

Low detection of tuberculosis is due to difficulties in specimen collection and bacteriological confirmation. This is because children can show non-specific clinical signs that overlap with other childhood diseases. Children and young adults often seek out primary health care, or child health services in facilities that have limited capacity to diagnose tuberculosis.

Malnutrition is worsening the effects of tuberculosis. Globally, malnutrition is responsible for 19% of all tuberculosis cases.

“Childhood tuberculosis doubled with malnutrition poses major health challenges in the ‎African Union Member States,” said H.E Minata Samate Cessouma, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social ‎Development, African Union Commission. “Undernourished children with tuberculosis are susceptible to developing ‎extensive and severe complications. There is an urgent need for innovative interventions to integrate ‎tuberculosis diagnosis in nutrition programmes to identify the disease ‎in children quickly.”

“The epidemic of tuberculosis among children in Africa has been occurring in the shadows and has until now been largely ignored. We hope this call will galvanize action and ensure no child in Africa is lost to a disease which in many parts of the world is now history,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “Strong political leadership, accountability, financial support and global solidarity are critically needed to increase access to effective diagnostics, medications, vaccines and other tools for tuberculosis control.”‎

Side event To end childhood tuberculosis in 2030, political leadershipThe African Union and WHO, EGPAF, Stop TB Partnership all called for rapid recovery from the COVID-19 impact and urged countries and governments to encourage the growth of child-friendly tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment.

“One child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes even though tuberculosis is curable and preventable. Children with tuberculosis are almost never spreading the disease and are always infected by an adult, so their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat tuberculosis in children,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership. “We call on all our partners to be committed, united and learn from our achievements and mistakes to ensure that an airborne disease hundreds of years old like TB is not a threat for the generations to come,”

The WHO End TB Strategy calls for countries to aim to reduce TB deaths by 90% and TB cases by 2030, compared to 2015. The strategy also identifies key milestones countries must achieve by 2020 or 2025 in order to eradicate the disease.

The 2020 milestone required a 35% reduction of tuberculosis cases and a 20% decrease in deaths. Sixteen countries with a high tuberculosis burden reached the 2020 case reduction milestone, and only six of them met the target to reduce deaths by 35%.

“Ensuring we meaningfully invest in the tools and technologies needed to respond to the tuberculosis pandemic, guarantees that the global health community can save the lives of thousands of people living with or at risk for tuberculosis infection. However, should we fail to prioritize children and adolescents in these efforts, we will ultimately fail at achieving our goal of realizing a future free from tuberculosis,” said Chip Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer of EGPAF.

The partners urged African countries to prioritise funding for tuberculosis control and prevention, and to allocate sufficient financial, technical, and human resources to accelerate the fight against this disease among children and adolescents. Currently, Africa’s investment and funding for tuberculosis prevention and control remains low, which could hinder efforts to achieve the global target of eliminating the disease by 2030. Africa needs at least US$1.3 billion annually for tuberculosis treatment and prevention. Yet, only 22% of the budget is provided by countries. External funding accounts for 34%. The remainder of the budget remains unfunded.

Distributed by APO Group for WHO Regional Office for Africa