Mombasa tops list with most TB cases

What you need to know:

  • TB, a bacterial airborne disease, is currently ranked as Kenya’s fifth biggest killer, having claimed about 10,183 lives in 2015.
  • Isiolo had 325 cases, while Kisumu recorded 259, a big improvement from 2014 for the county.
  • Kenya had a total of 81,518 overall cases of TB in 2015, a slight decline from 90,000 in 2014.

Even as the first national Tuberculosis survey since 1958 promises a different picture, current data shows that Mombasa, Nairobi, Isiolo, Kisumu and Embu counties have the largest populations of people suffering from the disease.

The data collected from the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Lung Disease Programme (NTLD) indicates that these counties—alongside Pokot, Tharaka Nithi, Samburu, Turkana and Kirinyaga — bear 32 per cent of the country’s TB burden.

TB, a bacterial airborne disease, is currently ranked as Kenya’s fifth biggest killer, having claimed about 10,183 lives in 2015.

The data collected represents cases between December 2014 and December 2015.

While there is newer data up to March, this year, it could not be included in this analysis because the update was not homogenous in all the counties.

It shows that when the total number of TB cases are calculated against a population of 100,000 people, Mombasa had the most cases at 385 followed by Nairobi (339).

BIG IMPROVEMENT

Isiolo had 325 cases, while Kisumu recorded 259, a big improvement from 2014 for the county. Kenya had a total of 81,518 overall cases of TB in 2015, a slight decline from 90,000 in 2014.

Acknowledging the data, NTLD head Enos Masini said that the high numbers in a region may also just be an indicator of the county’s ability to collect data and report.

While Kenya was the first African country in 2008 to attain the WHO targets of detecting 70 per cent of the TB cases and treating 85 per cent of those detected cases successfully, the Ministry of Health still estimates that there are about 20,000 people suffering from TB, who have not been put on medication.

Five of these 10 top heavily burdened counties also feature in the top 10 that bear the most cases of drug-resistant TB strain.

From a total of 437 drug resistant TB, Nairobi had the most cases (74), Garissa (69) and Mombasa (17). Drug-sensitive TB takes at least six months to treat.