Africa Public Health Rights Alliance "15% Now" Campaign

Media Statement: Embargoed for November 8 2007.

Africa Public Health Rights Alliance "15% Now" Campaign Issues TB Scorecard At Start of World Conference Against TB, Lung Disease [and HIV] Holding in Cape Town 8 - 12 Nov.

TB Scorecard Reveals That:

* 4 of 10 countries globally with overall highest TB prevalence are African.
* 8 of 10 countries globally with highest TB prevalence per 100,000 are African.
* All 10 countries globally with highest prevalence per 100,000 in HIV positive adults are African.
* Poor Health financing and falling levels of health workers are key factors driving TB prevalence.
* SADC is sub-region most hit by TB prevalence in HIV positive adults.
* Africa’s pivotal countries Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC & South Africa carry biggest burden.
* Kenya only country globally to feature in every category of high prevalence rankings.

In a statement of serious concern, Rotimi Sankore Coordinator of the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance 15% Now Campaign stated:

"In August 2005 African Health Ministers rightly declared rising TB prevalence an emergency but governments and Heads of State in particular have largely failed to act. Many have acted like the proverbial home owner that went back to sleep after being alerted by neighbours to the burning roof". He added that "it is a politically incorrect analogy but it is impossible to imagine a serious government declaring war and then failing to arm its army. African health workers are fighting a heroic but loosing battle. Due to the abysmally low levels of health financing millions of Africans are unable to receive treatment, and demoralised health workers are being poached in thousands by more developed countries taking advantage of the situation."

"It is also a cause for great anxiety that on a continent where poor reproductive health has already led to unprecedented maternal death levels of 261,000 a year, TB is now emerging as the biggest killer of women. Additionally, the mutual support provided by TB and HIV to each other, and the emergence of drug resistant strains of TB should be prompting governments to act while there is still a chance to contain the epidemic at lower cost."

He underlined that "with the World Health Organisation warning that TB could be spreading in many areas at the rate one person per second, and each infected person capable of infecting another 10 to 15 persons per annum Africa's future will be very gloomy unless our Heads of States start putting down the money immediately to strengthen African Health Systems through in the first instance all meeting the Abuja pledge to allocate 15% or more of national budgets to health care."

"The fact that pivotal countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, DRC and South Africa are carrying the greatest TB burdens shows how easily they could drag down the regions that revolve around them. Already SADC arguably the continents most integrated sub-region is already drowning in a dual TB/HIV pandemic. The African Union Commission has already developed a continental plan. It has to be, and can only be funded and implemented sustainably by our own governments. The annual ritual of appeals for donor funds at G8 summits have not and will not solve Africa's public health problems. No country with a viable public health system has ever waited for external resources to build its hospitals, provide adequate working conditions for health workers and provide life saving medicines. Our own governments have to show the way by saving their own continent, and donor funds can be considered as complimentary."