Somalia Sees Good Progress in Eliminating Tuberculosis

MOGADISHU, Xinhua: Somalia said Sunday it’s making significant progress to achieve the global goal of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) by 2030 but called for more investments to help sustain the gains.

Mohamed Jafar, national TB program manager in the Ministry of Health and Human Services, said Somalia’s TB program has weathered recurring climatic shocks, insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic to show an 87 percent treatment success rate. Jafar said there is a 14 percent decrease in TB incidence and an increase in TB treatment centers from seven to 109 in the past two decades.

“Even though we are making progress, we still need more support to sustain the gains made over the years, especially in the form of molecular testing machines and outreach activities, as both are critical for case detection,” he said in a statement issued in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to mark World TB Day, which falls on March 24 every year.

The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Somalia marked World Tuberculosis Day 2024 with a renewed commitment to end the TB epidemic. Under the theme “Yes! We can end TB!,” WHO aims to inspire hope and promote high-level leadership, increased investments, faster uptake of new WHO recommendations and innovations, and multisectoral collaboration to combat TB.

Significant Progress

According to WHO, TB is a major public health problem in Somalia and despite the country’s fragility, Somalia’s TB program has made significant progress since it was reestablished in 1995 following its collapse early in the civil war. The nation’s TB incidence has reduced to 246 cases per 100,000 population in 2023 from 286 cases per 100,000 population in 2010, a 14 percent decrease over 14 years, WHO said.

Sindani Ireneaus Sebit, WHO’s focal person for Somalia’s TB program, said the UN health agency continues to provide essential technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and plays a vital role in TB drug management to ensure that TB drugs are available to patients at their convenience, with no chance of stockouts.

According to WHO, the number of TB treatment centers in Somalia grew to 109 centers in 2023 from just seven centers in 1995. It said TB cases enrolled in treatment have also gradually increased to 18,604 cases per year in 2023 from 10,469 cases per year in 2010.

Overall, during this period, the program enrolled a total of 211,554 TB cases on treatment. The program successfully saved the lives of 184,052 TB cases to 2023 from 2010 — giving an average treatment success rate of 87 percent.

WHO Somalia said it helped the ministry establish Somalia’s first treatment center for drug-resistant TB in 2013 and there are now 11 such centers, which together cover the whole country. Since 2015, a total of 2,021 drug-resistant TB cases have been enrolled for treatment. Nearly 1,456 of these cases were successfully treated with an average treatment success rate of 72.