By Sharon Atieno
With more than 130,000 cases annually, Kenya is among the thirty high-burden countries of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. However, the country is making tremendous progress in its fight against the disease.
Aiban Ronoh, Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research at the Division of National Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Program, Ministry of Health, spoke during a media café in Nairobi to commemorate World TB Day.
Ronoh noted that 124,000 people fell ill with TB in 2024 compared to 168,000 in 2023. This is a 41% reduction in cases compared to 2015 levels, which is when the new global goals were set. By 2025, the world targets to reduce TB incidence rates by 50%.
Against an annual mortality rate of 23,000, TB deaths fell to 15,000 in 2024. This is a 66% decrease compared to 2015 levels. The global target of decreasing TB deaths is 75% by 2025.
Further, more than 96,000 TB cases were identified and put on treatment in 2024. Of these, about 13% were children and adolescents below 14 years, Ronoh said, noting that children are among the vulnerable groups.
Men and adults aged 25 to 44 years are the worst affected by TB in Kenya. “The people coming out of college into productive economic and social lives are at risk of getting TB and mostly men. So, we need to make sure we are intervening for that,” he said.
There is a decline with regards to drug-resistant TB from an annual rate of 1,100 annually to 750 identified in 2024. The majority of the resistance is with the first-line drugs, especially, rifampicin.
Ronoh noted that the treatment success rate for multi-drug resistant TB is 89%, significantly higher than the global rate of 68%, indicating that Kenya is doing much better.
Kenya has achieved this fete through a people-centered approach, which puts the people affected at the centre. The use of community health promoters to help with TB detection, GeneXpert technology for rapid TB diagnosis and shorter more effective regimens for treatment among other interventions have had a high impact.
A national strategic plan on TB has also been implemented running from 2024 to 2028. The overarching goal of the strategy is to move closer to the global target of eliminating TB by 2030, through a combination of quality prevention, diagnostic and treatment services for TB, Leprosy and lung diseases.
“While these achievements are commendable, we remain aware that there are systemic bottlenecks that come in the way of realizing the full aspiration of the country,” Dr. Abdourahmane Diallo, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Kenya, said.
“The significant proportion of TB cases still go undetected unfortunately and multidrug-resistant TB continues to pose a major threat with 60% of drug-resistant TB cases being missed.”
Further, TB-affected households in Kenya experienced a significant financial burden underscoring the need for social protection measures to ensure equitable access to care. Coupled with limited armed predictable resources and emerging epidemics, all these threaten to reverse gains made by the country.
Additionally, he noted that climate change is impacting food security resulting in undernutrition, causing potential threats and compounding vulnerabilities to TB.
Therefore, in line with the theme for the Day, “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver”, Dr. Diallo called on all TB stakeholders in Kenya to take urgent action through concerted efforts to address the social determinants of TB, deliver people-centered services and guarantee equitable and sustainable TB care for all.
