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US donates 35m/- motorcycles for use in TB/leprosy programme
2006-05-18 09:13:58
By Angel Navuri
The US government has donated about eight motorcycles worth 35m/- to the National TB/Leprosy Programme (NTLP).
Country Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Stefan Wiktor handed over the donation to the Health Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Didas Kayumbu yesterday in Dar es Salaam.
The donation from US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Wiktor said would help to scale up the battle against TB, HIV/Aids and leprosy.
District TB/HIV Coordinators in Mwanza, Arusha and Coast regions will be using the motorcycles, he said.
’’The motorcycles will allow district TB/HIV officers to move between TB clinics and HIV/Aids care and treatment centres smoothly,’’ he said.
He said US was going to provide more than US$130million in HIV/Aids relief to Tanzania this year.
The cash will also be used to support those afflicted with TB and HIV/Aids.
He said over 48,000 people died of combined HIV/Aids and TB infections last year in the country.
’’Over 130 people die everyday out of combined HIV/Aids and TB infections. That is, one out of every three people who dies of HIV infection is also infected with TB and their deaths are usually attributed to TB,’’ he said.
”HIV/Aids and TB are so closely connected that the term co-epidemic or dual epidemic is often used to describe their relationship, he said.
’’In Tanzania, TB kills up to 30 per cent of all HIV/Aids patients and people who are HIV-positive and infected with TB are up to 50 times more likely to develop active TB than are people who are HIV-negative.
Active TB can be easily spread to others, with estimates showing that carriers of active TB will infect ten to fifteen other people every year,’’ he said.
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