THE Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), has come under fire from Tuberculosis (TB) activists and advocates for delaying to release nine new mobile X-Ray vehicles that are meant for screening Tuberculosis (TB) in communities.
By Michael Gwarisa
According to initial plans, the nine trucks were supposed to be commissioned at an official ceremony on World TB Day on March 24, 2022 where the Vice President and Minister of Health, Dr Constantino Chiwenga was supposed to be the guest of honour. However, the event did not happen as planned and the trucks are reportedly still awaiting an official ceremony before they are deployed to their respective provinces. A total of 9 (nine) trucks have been procured, with the most recent consignment of 5 (five) in 2021.
The delays in releasing the trucks however come at a time Zimbabwe has been missing TB cases in communities due to the absence of adequate human resources and technology to screen and test for TB in both adults and children. According to statistics, in 2019, Zimbabwe missed an estimated 29% of TB cases, mostly amongst hard to reach and high risk groups. In 2020 due to COVID 19, the country recorded a decline of 27% in all TB cases detected.
In an interview with HealthTimes, Tariro Kutadza, a Stop TB Partnership Champion said further delays in releasing the trucks will result in more TB cases getting missed.
When we heard that the Ministry had procured vans to do case findings, we were so excited. We heard every province is going to have a van. That is where we ended. We now want those vans to come so that we can plan and start work in communities. We plead with government to release the vans and we need them in provinces as was promised.
“The reason why we way these cars should be commissioned as soon as possible is that TB is something we can combat through getting the missing positive cases in our communities and we think these vans are going to be a very great innovation where we have decentralised services and communities can participate in different districts especially where there are pockets of TB cases. We can pick up the missing people and ensure they get treatment as soon as possible so that we can end TB by 2030,” said Kutadza.
She added that once the trucks have been availed, there is a an opportunity to detect the missed TB cases and initiate them on treatment, increasing treatment coverage and reducing undesirable TB outcomes.
However, Public Health Specialist, in the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) National TB Control Program Dr Fungai Kavenga told delegates at the Stop TB Partnership meeting of TB Champions and Celebrities that they were still pushing for the commissioning of the trucks any time soon.
“These X-Ray trucks were procured so we are waiting for commissioning of these trucks. The thing is there were supposed to be commissioned on the World TB Day in collaboration with the United Nations (UN) High level team. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hold the event so we are pushing so that we get these vehicles commissioned by our higher office so that the provinces can be allocated their X-Ray trucks,” said Dr Kavenga.
He added that the ministry has decentralised TB screening and the trucks will be penetrati- ng hard to reach but high TB burden communities in a bid to scale up TB case finding.
Meanwhile, apart from offering TB screening and TB services, the X-Ray Trucks also offer a number of other services symptom screening for TB amongst high risk groups, HIV counselling and testing, COVID 19 testing, diabetes screening and testing, screening for hypertension, screening for common cancers, lifestyle modification advice, commencement on TB treatment, commencement on HIV treatment commencement on TB preventive therapy and all those screened and tested will be appropriately linked to care.
The mobile trucks are equipped with a digital chest x-ray which is used for screening people for TB.
Zimbabwe has since been removed from the top 8 countries in Africa on world’s top 30 list of countries with triple burdened with TB, TB/HIV. However, the country is now double burdened with MDR-TB and TB/HIV. Treatment coverage was 72% in 2019, decreasing from 83% in 2018. An estimated 6,160 cases were missed in 2019. However, males bear the brunt of disease burden, particularly the economically productive 25 – 44-year age category.