The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE’s efforts in the fight against Tuberculosis have received international recognition after the country scooped two awards at the recently held Union World Conference on Lung Health in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The second edition of the TB Awards Gala was held on the sidelines of the conference on 10 October.
A total of 11 prizes in six different categories were awarded by different Stop TB Partnership Secretariat teams.
Zimbabwe was honoured in the TB procurement and supply chain category for excellent work in accurately quantifying the procurement orders.
Honoured in the same category as Zimbabwe were Sri Lanka and Turkmenistan who received awards for leading in scaling up new tools and leading efforts to efficiently plan orders respectively.
The Global Drug Facility presented the awards to the three countries.
Development AID from People to People (DAPP) from Zimbabwe also scooped a Partners Engagement Prize to make it two for the country.
Two other partner organisations, the Moldovan Centre for Health Policies and Studies and Socios and Salud from Peru were also honoured in the same category.
The three partner organisations were selected through a random draw, for participating in the 2017 Partners Survey.
National TB Programme manager in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Charles Sandy said the two accolades were a sign that the country’s response to TB was effective.
“It means the national response is effective, high quality and cost-effective as medicines availability is a critical component of the national response strategy.
“Accurate quantification and forecasting is key to ensure availability while also ensuring efficiency of resource utilisation through minimal expiries,” said Dr Sandy.
Other countries that also received awards include Kazakhstan, India, Vietnam, Tajikistan and Sierra Leone.
Speaking at the awards gala Stop TB Partnership executive director Dr Lucica Ditiu said ending TB remained an achievable task.
“TB remains a major cause of death in the world. We have the power to end TB, but to reach a turning point we need the energy and determination of every partner, every woman and man who work daily and tirelessly to find innovative, new, and bold solutions to fight this horrible disease,” Dr Ditiu said.
She said the awards were meant to highlight and recognise the good work being done by partner organisations in fighting TB.
Officials in Zimbabwe have declared that the country was on course towards ending TB within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework by 2030, which the country has fully adopted.
This is despite numerous challenges that the Government is still trying to address in the fight against the disease.
Case detection of TB in Zimbabwe stands at about 70 percent with the Ministry of Health and Child Care pushing for improvement. — @irielyan
