Dar Es Salaam, March 25 (IANS) Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa has urged fellow citizens to work together with the government and development partners in ending tuberculosis.
“Efforts should also be directed at preventing new TB cases and curbing deaths caused by TB,” he said on Friday when addressing a public rally in Bariadi district in Simiyu region to mark World Tuberculosis Day.
A statement by the Prime Minister’s Office said Majaliwa believed that if everyone played his or her part, the fight against TB could be realised, Xinhua news agency reported.
He added that each one should take precautionary measures against the disease because if one was infected without one’s knowledge, he or she was likely to infect about 10 to 20 other people.
Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in her message that ending TB is feasible with the decline in TB deaths and cases, and the elimination of economic and social burdens associated with it.
Moeti added in a statement that TB required concerted action by all sectors, from communities and businesses to governments, civil society and others.
World Tuberculosis Day is commemorated annually on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis, and to step up efforts to end the epidemic.
–IANS
int/khz/
