TB infections in Somalia close to 40,000 in 2019 but only half reported-WHO

Over 16,000 cases of Tuberculosis (TB) were recorded in Somalia in 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said warning there are many unreported cases in the country.

The global health organisation said Tuesday in marking the World TB day there were close to 40,000 new infections in 2019 but less than half of that was reported.

“Based on recent population data 39,000 #TB infections occurred in the country last year & only 16,907 new TB infections were reported. This means we are missing a large number of cases which go undiagnosed/unreported,” WHO said in a tweet.

Noting there was need for solutions to address the underreporting, WHO country director Dr. Mamun Malik said the large numbers of cases remained unattended to.

“We are missing a large number of TB infections that remain undetected and undiagnosed,”

Dr. Malik noted there was need to integrate TB control activities such as detection, diagnosis, contract tracing, patient treatment and care into the primary health care systems.

According to WHO, 10 million people fell ill with TB in 2018 with 1.5 million of this succumbing to the disease. This year’s theme is “It’s time’.

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