Inter Press Service - Friday, April 23, 1999
Kumbirayi Glenda Mashingaidze

Last year two million people died of AIDs-related diseases in Africa. According to the UN health agency, 1.6 million new cases of TB occur in Africa, with 600,000 deaths, every year.

The WHO says 30 percent of all new TB patients are HIV- positive.

"Currently, the burden of the two diseases is heaviest in the southern and eastern Africa, and an urgent intervention is needed," says WHO, which held a four-day (Apr 20-23) workshop in the Zimbabwean capital of Harare to seek ways to stop the spread of the two diseases.

Sub-Saharan African countries which have recorded the highest HIV infections are Botswana (25.6 percent), Zimbabwe (25.2 percent), Namibia (19.8 percent), Zambia (18.7 percent), South Africa (15.1 percent), Tanzania (12.4 percent) and Kenya (9.6 percent).

"HIV/AIDs and TB appear not to show much decline in incidence transmission. The seriousness of the impact of the dual epidemic of TB and HIV/AIDs has been recognised, both at the country level and the international level," says WHO. In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe, in his first public acknowledgement of the AIDS crisis, has said that an estimated 1,200 people are dying in the southern African country each week from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.

Mugabe announced the casualty figures in a speech marking the country's 19th independence anniversary in the capital Harare on Apr 18.

Health officials say an estimated 20 percent of the country's 12.7 million people have been infected with the disease.

The US Census Bureau report, published late last year, shows that average life expectancy in Zimbabwe is expected to fall from 61 to 39 by the year 2010. TB is also threatening to reverse the gains made in the past few years against the disease in Zimbabwe.

"Projections and forecasts show a continuing increase over the next years, with an expected number of more than 110,000 new TB patients each year by 2003," according to the latest guide on the management of tuberculosis launched by the minister of health, Dr Timothy Stamps, early this year.

More than 47,000 cases of TB were recorded last year, compared to 8,000 in 1997. "Under pressure of these increasing numbers of TB cases in Zimbabwe, TB control has again become a major challenge," says Stamps.

South Africa recorded about 3.5 million people living with HIV/AIDs in 1998. Of these, 1.2 million will get sick with TB, according to the WHO.

About 40 percent of TB patients in South Africa are HIV- positive.

Tuberculosis is caused by the bacillus mycobacterium tuberculosis, which usually attacks the lungs, causing a condition known as pulmonary TB.

WHO urged patients to seek medical treatment immediately once they experience symptoms like coughing, weight loss, chest pain, fever and night sweats. "The coughing may last for weeks and may produce sputum. Left untreated, 50 percent of TB patients will die within five years and most others will be seriously debilitated," according to WHO.

Like elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, "People in Tanzania are usually afraid to go for treatment once they are diagnosed as having TB. They think they will be labelled as HIV positive. People associate TB with HIV/AIDs due to ignorance," says Dr Said Egwaga from Tanzania.

Although Tanzania and Uganda, where a headway has been made to reduce the spread of the disease, offer free treatment, many TB patients still refuse to take the offer. "We have free treatment in Uganda, but we have no access to the people," says Dr Okot Nwa.

More than 80 percent of people with AIDs come from Africa. The UN Aids Programme, UNAIDs, attributes the spread of the disease to the inability by women to negotiate safe sex, poverty and the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases in some African countries.(END/IPS/kgm/mn/99)
990423
IP990402

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 1999. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1999. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .