Johannesburg, Aug 24 (PTI) The African Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday called for immediate and comprehensive measures to end the significant toll of tuberculosis among children in Africa.

The appeal was made jointly with the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Stop TB Partnership on the side-lines of the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lome, Togo.

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“The epidemic of tuberculosis among children in Africa has been occurring in the shadows and has until now been largely ignored. We hope this call will galvanise action and ensure no child in Africa is lost to a disease which in many parts of the world is now history,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

“Strong political leadership, accountability, financial support and global solidarity are critically needed to increase access to effective diagnostics, medications, vaccines and other tools for tuberculosis control,” Moeti added.

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The African region is home to 17 of the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis burden globally and accounts for around 3,22,000 children and young adolescents (aged 0-15 years) or a third of tuberculosis cases in the same age group worldwide.

“Of particular concern is that two-thirds of children in the region are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, leading to an increased risk of rapid disease progression and mortality, especially in younger children. Among children under five just around a third (32 per cent) are diagnosed – the smallest proportion globally,” the WHO Regional Office for Africa said in a statement. Worsening the impact of tuberculosis is malnutrition.

Globally, 19 per cent of all tuberculosis cases are associated with malnutrition.

“Childhood tuberculosis doubled with malnutrition poses major health challenges in the African Union Member States,” said Minata Samate Cessouma, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission.

“One child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes even though tuberculosis is curable and preventable. Children with tuberculosis are almost never spreading the disease and are always infected by an adult, so their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat tuberculosis in children,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership.

Under the WHO End TB Strategy, countries should aim to reduce TB cases by 80 per cent and cut deaths by 90 per cent by 2030 compared with 2015.

The strategy also sets key milestones that countries should cross by 2020 and 2025 if they are to end the disease.

The partners called on African countries to prioritise funding for tuberculosis prevention and control and allocate sufficient financial, technical and human resources to accelerate progress towards ending the disease in children and adolescents.

Currently, investment and funding for tuberculosis control in Africa remains low, jeopardising the efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030.

The African region requires at least USD 1.3 billion for tuberculosis prevention and treatment every year, yet countries contribute 22 per cent of the needed budget while external funding accounts for 34 per cent.

The rest of the budget remains unfunded.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)