58% of TB Patients Suffer Catastrophic Costs In Malawi

58% of Tuberculosis patients in the country suffer catastrophic costs meaning that patients are still using at least 20% of their monthly earnings as they access medical care new study results have shown.

This has been disclosed at the Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems Support Project (SATHPP) Indaba currently underway at Livingstone in Zambia is aimed at reviewing the major project components namely;

Innovative Prevention, Detection and Treatment of TB.
Regional Capacity for Disease diagnostics, and Management of TB and Occupational Lung Diseases;
Regional Learning Diagnostics and Project Management.

Speaking from Zambia, the Director for the National TB Control Programme Dr James Mpunga said a total of 44 research studies have been conducted over the past seven (7) years in the project implementation countries, of note among these is the out-of-pocket expenditure study which shows that 58 per cent of TB patients in Malawi suffer catastrophic costs.

Mpunga stressed that such studies have assisted in policy reviews for example, the Ministry has embarked on active case finding which includes going out looking for patients outside the hospital instead of waiting for patients to come to the facility hence mobile vans going around in cities and districts apart from the door-to-door initiatives.

“Forty-four (44) studies have been concluded over the past seven years in the project countries, of note among these is the ‘Out of Pocket Expenditure Study’ which shows that 58% of our TB patients suffered catastrophic costs whereby patients pay at least 20% of their monthly earnings as they access TB care,” Mpunga said.

The conference has delegates from the hosting nation Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, Rwanda, Tanzania and other partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), AUDA NEPAD, and Africa CDC.

Countries where SATHSSP is being implemented in the SADC region are; Malawi, Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia, focusing on three thematic components.