By: Vetondouua Tjivikua
Namibia remains in the top 10 countries globally, with many TB cases.
Namibia recorded several 8100 cases in 2020.
This comes as Namibia is set to commemorate the World TB day that will be observed on the 25 March 2022 in the Oshikoto region at Onandjokue clinic in the Onyaanya district, where the 2021 TB statistics will be released.
Communication and social mobilisation officer for the ministry of health and social services Pinehas Iipinge said TB continues to be of high concern in Namibia.
He Said Namibia has observed a steady decline in the number of cases reported countrywide compared to the 16 156 cases reported in 2004 to about 8100 cases reported in 2020.
Iipinge also noted that Namibia remains among the top 10 countries with a high number of TB cases despite the decline. A global TB report states that Namibia reported about 2700 people who died of TB.
Even while the disease is curable and no one is supposed to die, we still have many people who died of TB.
“The health ministry with its partners and stakeholders are doing very well to make sure that whoever is put on TB treatment complete their full treatment and those on symptoms seeking services to be assisted and start their treatment as soon as possible”.
Iipinge further stated the ministry had maintained uninterrupted treatment and diagnoses of TB patients for the past two years, where COVID-19 has escalated.
They have been doing this by decentralising the TB care and services from the health facilities to minimise the patients’ contact with the health care workers and advising patients to collect their medication at local community TB centres.
A TB survivor and prevention advocate Karin Husselmann said she was diagnosed with TB in 2004 in Cape Town. She pulled through the recovery process by taking a handful of TB medication despite the high stigma and the rejection at the time.
“In the last couple of years I realised that I need to let my voice heard because it’s not only people who live in shacks, don’t have food, or people who we believe do not take a good bath it can happen to anyone, and we can fight it and get over it”, said Husselmann.
In the same vein, Husselmann encouraged people out there to listen to the messages about TB instead of waiting until you get diagnosed while you can just prevent it.
Namibia currently carries one of the highest burdens of TB and multi-drug resistant TB globally.
A 2020 study has found that the country has a rate of 442 cases per 100 000 people and is ranked fifth among countries with the highest TB burdens.