MINSK, 7 April (BelTA) – Members of the healthcare, physical training, family and youth policy commission of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus took part in the international video conference “Tuberculosis: Problems and Solutions” that took place on 7 April under the auspices of the EECA Caucus of the Global TB Caucus. The focus was on ways to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis (TB) patients, chairwoman of the commission Lyudmila Makarina-Kibak told BelTA.
TB patients may become one of the most vulnerable groups amid the coronavirus pandemic. “The immune system of TB patients and survivors is weakened. Sometimes they have several other diseases, including hepatitis, HIV. The global community is concerned that these people may suffer from a severe form of COVID-19,” Lyudmila Makarina-Kibak said.
Large funds are being funneled into the fight against the novel coronavirus, hospitals are increasing bed capacity for coronavirus patients. Healthcare workers are actively involved in the coronavirus fight. “We are worried that this can put TB patients at a disadvantage. MPs discussed what we could do in this situation,” Lyudmila Makarina-Kibak noted. She stressed that there have been no complaints that TB patients are being neglected amid the coronavirus situation in Belarus.
Tuberculosis remains a big problem for the global healthcare system, member of the healthcare, physical training, family and youth policy commission Svetlana Odintsova noted. In 2015, there were ten million people affected with TB and 1.8 million deaths worldwide. That year WHO adopted the END TB Strategy. Its main targets are to reduce the TB mortality rate by 95% and the incidence rate by 90% by 2035.
Svetlana Odintsova pointed out that Belarus is successfully implementing the sub-program “Tuberculosis” of the state program “Health of the Nation and Demographic Security of Belarus” for 2016-2020. In 2019, the country met the targets in this area. “The mortality rate went down by 15%, the incidence rate almost by 8%,” she said. Express diagnostics and patient-centered approach also contributed to this result. Funding has been provided by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “The most important in the fight against any infection is organization: sanitary and quarantine measures, treatment and rehabilitation of patients,” Svetlana Odintsova stressed.
Despite the positive dynamics, tuberculosis in Belarus and the whole world is still a serious problem, first of all, due to the high share of cases of acutely progressive or drug-resistant forms of the disease. The role of Belarusian MPs in the TB fight is to ensure cooperation between government authorities, public associations, and international organizations. The commission expects to gain valuable insights from the video conference that discussed the most important issues of drug-resistant TB, the significance of MPs' participation in solving TB-related problems at the international level, and possible solutions to them.
