Remarks by Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa
I’d like to wish a very good day, bonjour, bom dia and a warm welcome to all our journalists colleagues who are joining us for this press conference.
Today I’d like to discuss the humanitarian situation caused by Cyclone Freddy in Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar and Africa’s progress on ending Tuberculosis.
I’m delighted to be joined by Dr Charles Mwansambo, the Secretary of Health in the Malawi Ministry of Health and Dr Norbert Ndjeka, the Director of the Drug-Resistant TB, TB & HIV programme at the National Department of Health in South Africa.
A warm welcome to both of you today, and thank you very much for having joined us.
In our last edition of a press conference on the 2nd of March, I shared that after I left Mozambique tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Madagascar and was sweeping back to southern Mozambique and on Monday, 13th March, it made landfall in Malawi.
The cyclone has left an appalling humanitarian situation in its wake:
More than 300 health facilities—including university hospital centers—have been destroyed or flooded in Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique leaving communities without adequate access to health services.
The extensive damage, flooding and torrential rains have affected more than 1.4 million people in the three countries and stretched the limit of the capacity of health systems.
Almost 1400 people have been injured in Malawi and Mozambique, while 282 are missing in the former.
In Malawi, 13 districts and two cities have been hit (including the city of Blantyre); and in Madagascar, 10 out of 23 regions and 34 districts are affected, while Mozambique reports casualties from five provinces.
And of 20 March, 605 deaths, unfortunately, have been reported, cumulatively.
Houses, schools, roads and other infrastructure have been destroyed or damaged, and swathes of inundated farmland raise the fear of malnutrition and the development of diseases and chronic health conditions.
Dr Mwansambo will, no doubt, speak more about the ongoing response in Malawi.
Increased and concerted humanitarian assistance is needed to support the affected populations to cope and eventually recover from the disaster.
We at WHO have provided almost US$ 8 million in support and deployed over 60 experts to the affected countries to strengthen the emergency response.
The cyclone’s devastation has raised public health risks, including the increased spread of cholera, malaria, vaccine-preventable diseases, even COVID-19 and malnutrition. And of course, support for trauma and mental health is equally needed.
We’ve shipped nearly 184 tons of laboratory, treatment and other critical medical supplies to boost the cholera outbreak response and we’ve decentralized this response operation to hotspot districts.
We’ve also trained more than 1500 health workers in the three affected countries on disease surveillance, clinical care, community mobilization to secure public support for their response.
A total of 12 African countries are currently experiencing cholera outbreaks. And, in some parts of the region, the ongoing outbreaks are exacerbated by extreme climatic events and conflict that have increased vulnerabilities, mainly as people move from away from their normal places of home.
Turning now to TB—Tuberculosis—on this World TB Day, the African Region has achieved a 22% decline in new infections since 2015.
Through our normative and supportive role as WHO, technical support, advocacy, and effective partnerships, the African Region is now on the threshold of reaching a 35% TB death reduction: there has been a 26% drop in TB deaths between 2015 and 2021 in the Region.
Seven countries—Eswatini, Kenya, Mozambique, South Soudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia—have attained a 35% reduction in deaths since 2015.
So, we’ve shown that it is possible to reach – and even surpass – the first milestone of the End TB Strategy—fixed at a 20% reduction by 2020.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen a notable progress in Eastern and Southern Africa. High-burden countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia have reached or surpassed the 20% target of reducing new TB cases.
Our Member States are increasing the uptake of new tools and guidance recommended by WHO, resulting in early access to TB prevention and care and better outcomes.
The use of rapid diagnostic testing has increased, improving countries’ ability to detect and diagnose new cases of the disease.
The awareness campaign we lead on TB case finding and tracking is equally paying off. Nigeria, for example, managed to significantly increase national TB case finding by 50% in 2021 using innovative approaches such as the adoption, deployment, and expansion of newer diagnostics in daily TB treatment, the use of digital technologies, Community Active Case Finding, and Public Private Mix initiatives.
We still face some challenges, notably:
Delayed diagnosis and testing since 40% of people living with TB did not know their diagnosis or the disease was not reported in 2021. Moreover, an estimated one million people are living with TB in the region, yet to be detected.
There’s a well-known link between TB and HIV. Approximately 20% of people newly diagnosed with TB are also living with HIV infection.
And we are fighting multi-drug-resistant TB. In the African Region, just over a quarter of all people living with multi-drug resistance are receiving the appropriate treatment. And Dr Norbert Ndjeka will no doubt discuss the ongoing efforts and challenges around this in his country.
TB, such an old disease, kills more people than any other infectious disease.
Nevertheless, new drugs, vaccines, and tests offer hope of ending TB in our lifetime.
The UN General Assembly will hold the second high-level meeting on the fight against TB on the 22nd of September 2023. It will provide a global platform to strongly articulate the TB problem and what needs to be done to end it; it will shine a light on the plight of TB patients and the disease’s impact on economies; expand advocacy around TB using diverse leading voices; and mobilize the needed political commitment and financial resources to end TB.
Once again, thank you very much for joining us and spreading information on health; and a special thanks to our guests, and I look forward very much to our discussions today.