New National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Control (NSP) 2024-2026

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Extract from the article: A validation workshop of the National Strategic Plan for the fight against tuberculosis (NSP TB 2024-2026) was held on 04 and 05 April in Lomé. It brought together several actors from all levels of the health pyramid, including civil society organisa

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A validation workshop of the National Strategic Plan for the fight against tuberculosis (NSP TB 2024-2026) was held on 04 and 05 April in Lomé. It brought together several actors from all levels of the health pyramid, including civil society organisations and other ministerial departments (justice, social action and communication) involved in the fight against TB.  Togo now has a new National Strategic Plan for the fight against tuberculosis, which is linked to the WHO's Stop TB Strategy, with the objective of « reducing the incidence of TB in Togo from 33 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2026 ».

During this meeting, the participants validated the situational analysis of the fight against TB in Togo taking into account the results of the epidemiological review and the evaluation of the NSP 2021-2023. They proceeded to the analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and gaps of the programme, the objectives, interventions and strategic activities for the period 2024-2026. 

It emerged that in 2021 the incidence rate of TB in Togo was 33 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a reduction of 43% compared to 2015; that of mortality (excluding TB-HIV) was 2.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2022, 3133 cases of all forms of tuberculosis were reported, including 386 TB/HIV co-infected patients and 94 children under 15 years of age. The region is in the lead with 40% of notified cases, followed by the maritime region with 19% and the plateaux with 17%. 17 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were also reported.

The programme's shortcomings include the lack of screening for TB cases, poor prevention of TB, treatment results that are no longer progressing, poor quality of data, poor mobilisation of civil society organisations as well as community leaders and practitioners of traditional medicine. There is also insufficient data on gender-based discrimination and difficulties in accessing TB services, a system that is not well prepared for possible emergencies, insufficient and insecure funding. Another challenge is the lack of human and logistical resources and the low contribution of research to the fight against TB.

Meeting the challenges

The activities selected to meet these challenges in relation to the interventions include: strengthening the capacity for biological diagnosis of cases of tuberculosis, accelerating TB screening in the Greater Lomé and Maritime regions, strengthening TB screening in children under 15 years of age. It is also necessary to improve the search for presumed cases of tuberculosis in fixed, advanced and mobile posts within the populations at particular risk, to strengthen capacities and collaboration between the public and private sectors in the fight against TB. There is also the strengthening of TB control in the workplace, the strengthening of active contact tracing, the improvement of the therapeutic management of drug-susceptible TB patients, the improvement of the therapeutic management of MDR/XDR-TB patients, the strengthening of the joint management of TB and HIV, the strengthening of screening for TB, HIV and other co-morbidities, the improvement of the management of TB/HIV patients.

Strengthening the prevention of tuberculosis in the country; mobilising sufficient resources to fight tuberculosis in Togo; improving monitoring, evaluation and supervision; strengthening the capacities of actors; strengthening community commitment to the fight against TB; Strengthening communication for the fight against TB and MDR-TB; improving access to care and the regulatory framework on case notification, civil status registration, quality and rational use of drugs, and conducting studies and research to support the fight against TB.

Togo now has new control strategies with the aim of contributing to the elimination of tuberculosis in Togo, which is based on the following three objectives Strategic Objective 1: To reduce the incidence of TB in Togo from 33 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 23 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2026; Strategic Objective 2: To reduce the mortality rate of TB from 2.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 to 1.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 2026 and Strategic Objective 3: To strengthen the management and coordination capacities of the programme and of the actors at all levels, including community actors

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health problem in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2020, 9.9 million people were living with TB worldwide and 1.5 million died from it, making TB one of the 13 leading causes of death in the world.

Source: National Tuberculosis Control Programme (NTCP)