Tuberculosis still a health concern-Kasonka

The Ministry of Health says that Tuberculosis (TB) has remained to be one of the top ten diseases that causes deaths globally.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary for Technical Services Lackson Kasonka said despite the multiple interventions over a number of decades, the burden of TB across the globe and in particular the South African region has remained high.

Dr Kasonka disclosed that the current TB incidence rate in Zambia stands at 319 per hundred thousand population which translates into 59 percent of new TB infections every year.

He explained that, despite the high TB disease burden, Zambia has made tremendous progress in reducing the TB incidence rates in the country.

Dr Kasonka noted that the country has managed to reduce the TB incidence from 716 in the year 2000 to 319 per one hundred thousand patients in the year 2022 representing a 58 percent reduction.

“The mortality rate has also reduced in the same duration by 64 percent, this big progress arising from TB remains undesirably high and of huge concerns, every year Zambia loses not less than four thousand lives due to TB, this calls for urgent action,” he noted.

ZANIS reports that the Permanent Secretary was speaking during the National Tuberculosis symposium held in Lusaka today.

Dr. Kasonka stated that the symposium was in line with the theme of the World TB day which falls on Friday 25, 2022 dubbed ‘invest to end TB, save lives’.

And Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security State forensic Pathology, Adam Luchanga said that about 60 percent of the deaths in Zambia result from natural causes as evidenced by most sudden deaths which are brought in dead (BID)

Dr. Luchanga noted most of the sudden deaths happen at home without knowing the cause which is a huge problem and that about 71 percent of such deaths undergo autopsy to establish the cause of death.

He noted that a lot of people have TB but they do not know that they have active TB and is only detected during post-mortem.