Tuberculosis, a highly communicable disease, has turned out to be a curse on Kenya, ranked 10th among the most 'Tuberculosis' affected nations in the world. It is estimated that nearly 300 Kenyans die each day due to the disease.
This has raised the concern of Kenyan doctors and activists, who have now impressed upon the government to publicly label tuberculosis as a national debacle and formulate special laws to tackle the spread. It is estimated that nearly 108,000 Kenyans have been diagnosed with TB in 2005 and more than 60 percent of the TB patients are HIV positive.Dr. Despaul Muthama, from the ministry of health's National TB Control Program, said, "Having said that we detected 108,000 cases, this is estimated to represent only 50 percent of all tuberculosis cases in the country. We are trying to increase our efforts so that we can detect [and] to increase the percentage of patients which we detect. We have already started to strengthen our TB diagnostic services so that we can be able to reach more and more people. We have an advocacy campaign to try and send the messages to all corners of this country so that people know about the availability of tuberculosis services and that they can be offered these services free of charge."
Doctors and activists are not too happy with the current measures adopted to contain the disease. Developing nations need to double up in their efforts to check the spread, as they happen to be the worst hit by the infection.
Source-Medindia
SAV
