TB Speed Project under the Solthis in Sierra Leone on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, presented its report to strengthen pediatric tuberculosis services to enhance early detection.
The presentation was done at a two-day symposium held at Atlantic Hotel, Lumley in Freetown.
In his welcome address, the Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Dr Alieu Wurie said that TB is one of the leading infectious diseases in the world with high mobility and mortality. He said there were 11 million new TB cases with 1,090,000 new TB cases among children.
He said the root courses of TB among children include, children not diagnosed, not reported, poor access to childhood TB diagnoses in many health centers, lack of human resource structure, low capacity, among others.
The National TB Manager, Dr Haja Isatu Mustapha said TB Speed project was designed to carry out research activities aiming at reducing childhood mortality from TB by evaluating innovative and cost-effective TB diagnostic approaches for resource-limited settings.
She said the project was implemented in seven countries including Cambodia, Cameroon, La Co’te d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia from 2018 to date. She added that in Sierra Leone, the project was implemented by Solthis, FRENCH International Non-governmental Organisation (INGO) that has been in Sierra Leone supporting the health system since 2013, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
TB SPEED, she said, that was implemented in the Districts of Bo and Port Loko at the district Government Hospital and 4 health facilities in each district. She stated that the project involves diagnosis, care and treatment of Paediatric TB.
Within the project, she said, they have built the capacity of the healthcare workers and health system and diagnoses of paediatric TB using new models and tools. She said the event was held to share the results from the project at both international and national levels.
By Komba Fillie