Burundi like other countries in the World will celebrate the International Day Against Tuberculosis under the theme “Never again Tuberculosis in my life” on 24th March. PNLT (Programme National de lutte contre la Lèpre et la Tuberculose) Director, Dr Thaddée Ndikumana, invites all Burundians to take part against this disease.
<doc7509|right>Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, curable, which is tested and treated freely in Burundi. According to Dr Thaddée Ndikumana, PNLT Director, everybody should contribute to fight against Tuberculosis by informing about how it is transmitted, its clinical signs so that people know about it, as several people die because of ignorance.
“The clinical signs of Tuberculosis are: a persistent cough during two weeks, loss of appetite and weight, high temperature, and body shaking and sweating during the night,” points out Ndikumana.
He adds that Tuberculosis is caused by a virus which is transmitted through respiration. This is the reason why Burundi Government in collaboration with WHO has decided to fight strongly against it as it affects many people and it has already caused many cases of death.
“The government has instituted 166 centres and 135 ones for free testing and treatment respectively. And this latter is done under the strict supervision of the centre during six months without stopping” highlights Ndikumana.
The Burundi integration inside EAC facilitates the collaboration with partner states.
Niyongabo indicates that they collaborate with the region to fight against Tuberculosis. Even before the integration of Burundi inside EAC, Burundi used to work with the EAC member states as USAID funded them together as a region.
“In collaboration with EAC member states, we adopt common strategies to prevent tuberculosis. While it is transmitted through the air, and that people move from one country to another, contamination develops. Then, we have decided to give the same treatment inside EAC, so that an EAC individual may be treated in the same way in the community regardless of where he/she comes from” praises Ndikumana.
He says that they have the project of increasing the number of modern laboratories of extra-lungs tuberculosis test.
“Recently, Burundi has received 15 million $ from World Bank for the same objective. We are going to build modern laboratories in Kayanza, Muyinga, Makamba, which are neighbouring provinces with EAC countries .The National laboratory of reference at INCP and that of CHUK(Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Kamenge) will also be improved ” he explains.
We are going to collaborate with EAC member states; even our technicians will often visit their colleagues so that they will be at the same level by 2017.
Niyongabo indicates that Burundi occupies the first place in the fight against tuberculosis considering the number of people tested and treated in 2011 although those countries are more developed than Burundi in modern technologies.
