By Songa wa Songa, The Citizen Correspondent

Dar es Salaam. Tanzania is set to embark on equitable healthcare scheme by extending the focus from the three mainstream communicable diseases to the five Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

 

The focal point will spread from Aids, tuberculosis and malaria to onchocerciasis or river blindness caused by the roundworm, Lymphatic Filariasi; a parasitic disease caused by the worms that occupy the lymphatic system. 

Also the focus would be extended to Trachoma; an infectious disease that causes a characteristic roughening of the inner surface of the eyelids, soil transmitted helminthes caused by parasitic warms that live and feed off human hosts and snail fever called bilharzia or Schistosomisasis. 

 

The permanent secretary in the ministry of health and social welfare, Ms Blandina Nyoni, told the third annual NTD stakeholders meeting in Dar es Salaam on Friday that the new balance and fairness approach is necessary for the country’s health and growth.

 

In an opening speech read on her behalf by the director general of the National Institute for research (Nimr), Dr Mwele Malecela, Ms Nyoni said the move is in line with the recently formulated second National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP), popularly known in Swahili as Mkukuta, of which the ministry is a stakeholder under cluster two dedicated to improved livelihood and social wellbeing.

“This will address at a greater extend the burden of diseases, which are essentially preventable. Neglected Tropical Diseases is one of the targeted diseases for eradication that receives the first call of the available resources; be it financial, human, capital or supplies,” she said.

She blamed the neglect for the alarmingly increasing poverty particularly in Africa where the vast majority of the excess mortality and morbidity is experienced.

“This is the underlying factor of the increased poverty due to household disabilities as a result of these preventable illnesses, which can easily be eradicated. The cost of not taking timely action has drained and continues to undermine many of the African economies,” she said.

Ms Nyoni urged development partners to continue offering their support in the war against NTDs in a holistic manner.

“It is not enough to prevent ourselves from dying of Aids, tuberculosis and malaria but at the same time be complaisant when we die of other diseases prematurely,” she cried.

She, however, nodded the existing cooperation frameworks from partners such as USAID, the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (Apoc) and the UK government, which recently announced its increased NTD support £50 million to £245 million over the next four years.

Ms Nyoni said before adapting the integrated NTD control approach in the year 2009, Tanzania started with co-implementation of lymphatic filariasi and onchocerciasis mass drug administration in Tanga and Morogoro regions in 2004 and 2007 respectively.

Thereafter in 2009, with the support of USAID and Apoc, she said, the country started to implement the integrated approach to NTDs control where all ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) activities were being implemented in an integrated manner.

“In 2010, we covered a total of 36 districts with MDAs and by 2011, we up-scaled to 76 districts. A total of 15.3 million treatments were distributed in 2010 and 25 million in 2011; this is a great achievement and we are proud to be among the first countries to implement the integrated approach for NTDs control,” she said.

Earlier in her welcome remarks, the coordinator for the national NTDs control programme, Dr Upendo Mwingira, said the war against the NTDs in the country is fiercely fought on three main fronts of medication for prevention, treatment and avoidance through hygiene and environmental cleanliness.