Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda has bemoaned the impact of COVID-19 pandemic in the fight against Tuberculosis in the Central African nation.
Manaouda made the remarks as the country joined the rest of the world on Thursday to commemorate World Tuberculosis (TB) Day.
“National resources have been stretched in order to respond to the urgent needs of the economy deeply affected by the pandemic leading to reduction for massive and sustainable investment in the public health sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic not only weakened our response strategy but hampered the process to end tuberculosis,” Manaouda told reporters in the capital Yaounde during a media briefing on the sideline of the World Tuberculosis Day.
“Despite the shock, our health system has been strengthened through the gradual control of this pandemic throughout the world which will allow us to devote ourselves much more to the fight against TB,” he added.
He said the incidence of tuberculosis in Cameroon was 174 new cases for 100,000 residents in 2021. The mortality rate for the same period stood at 29 per 100,000 inhabitants. Enditem
