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West African health officials have formed a regional organisation to boost their efforts to fight tuberculosis.
The West Africa TB Control Initiative (WATCI) was created in Togo at a 16-18 April meeting that brought together the heads of anti-TB programmes and departments from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo.
WATCI aims to foster joint efforts against tuberculosis by West African countries, including through the exchange of information: its plans include setting up a joint tuberculosis data base for the 15 countries, as well as the publication of a twice-yearly scientific bulletin on the disease.
"The creation of such a regional organisation enables us to fill a gap in the fight against this illness whose incidence has increased significantly because of HIV-AIDS," the coordinator of the new body, Tidjani Osseni, said at the meeting, which also recommended training for anti-TB officials in data management and analysis.
The health officials called on their governments to support national anti-TB programmes so as to reduce to a minimum their dependence on external funding.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
