TB prevalence in Kenya still high stakeholders

The rate of tuberculosis prevalence in the country remains high despite awareness and contraction campaigns being carried out by the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders in the health sector.

Dr Christine Wambugu, TB/HIV Programme Coordinator at the Ministry of Health, says 70-90% of Kenyans have TB, whether active or inactive, a statistic that raises questions on the vulnerability of the country’s population.

“TB thrives in dark places and those with poor or no ventilation. It can be present as an infection or a disease,” notes Dr Wambugu.

Close to 90,000 Kenyans suffered tuberculosis in 2015, a disease that mostly affects persons aged 15-34 years, which is considered the economic productive range.

The Executive Director of Kenya AIDS NGO’s Consortium – KANCO, Allan Ragi, says the impact of this disease is rife, with delay in diagnosis being the biggest pillar challenge facing TB elimination.

However, KANCO Programmes Director, Onesmus Kalama, says HIV/AIDS and TB go hand-in-hand, adding that since 2010, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS has gone down due to sensitization and that the same should be done about TB.

“Our maternal and infant mortality rate is still high,” admits Kalama.

North Rift, Isiolo and Nyanza have the highest burden of TB in the country, even as Nandi, Siaya and Homa Bay Counties lead in death rates.

The capital city, Nairobi, last year recorded 12,000 cases of tuberculosis.

Of all the cases reported countrywide, 423 of them were drug resistant, a burden as explained by Dr Wambugu.

“We have 3,100 treatments centres and 1860 diagnostic sites of TB. However, it costs about 1.4 million shillings to treat one case of drug resistant TB.”