Fight Against Tuberculosis : National Strategic Plan Under Review

Experts from the Ministry of Public Health alongside technical and financial partners have brainstormed on a new strategic plan to extend the fight against tuberculosis from 2024-2026. The plan was reviewed last Friday March 10, 2023 in Yaounde during a meeting to discuss the National Strategic Plan against Tuberculosis in the country. 
Speaking during the meeting, the Secretary General in the Ministry of Public Health, Professor Louis Richard Njock,  said the National Tuberculosis Control Programme in 2019 developed a National Strategic Plan from 2020-2024, and envisaged addressing the problem of under-reporting cases of Tuberculosis (TB), through strategies such as extending the offer of diagnosis with the creation of Diagnostic and Treatment Centres (DTCs), intensifying active research into TB cases and putting them on treatment. In spite of their relevance, these interventions, according to Prof. Louis Richard Njock, did not achieve the expected results since the proportion of missing cases of TB remained around 50 per cent. This is why last Friday’s meeting mobilised actors (consultants inclusive) involved in the fight against TB to review the TB plan with the aim of putting an end to tuberculosis by 2030. This is according to the objectives of the End TB Strategy.
According to a consultant, Angelo Makpenon, the new strategic plan aims to improve the detection of active and latent TB cases, especially among children. Its objective is to reduce the incidence of tuberculosis in Cameroon by 50 per cent and mortality rate by 75 per cent.
The new national strategic plan for the fight against tuberculosis aims to excee...