MARTIN MAWAYA
The National AIDS Council (NAC) Community TB Care Officer, Antony Matadi said stigma and discrimination are major barriers to ending the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic in Zimbabwe.
According to the 2024 Zimbabwe Stigma Assessment report, approximately 40.9% of TB patients experience various forms of stigma.
In addition, the 2022 Zimbabwe Stigma Index 2.0 report revealed that 69.7% of clients living with HIV suffer stigma and discrimination.
“The stigma associated with HIV/TB co-infection has led to increased treatment defaulting, thereby raising the prevalence of drug-resistant TB,” said Matadi, citing a 2023 report by Mtetwa, during the NAC editors training workshop held in Chinhoyi this week.
Matadi emphasized that countries cannot fully support the right to the highest standard of physical and mental health without addressing TB stigma, which leads to discrimination and other human rights violations.
“Stigma and discrimination are key barriers to ending the TB epidemic, affecting access to TB services and quality of life,” Matadi stated.
The NAC officer outlined international and regional human rights instruments, as well as Zimbabwe’s national human rights framework, which enshrine the rights of TB patients.
These include the right to health, non-discrimination, privacy, and access to information.
Matadi stressed the importance of empowering individuals to recognize and document rights violations, such as denial of care, workplace discrimination, and gender-based violence.
He urged communities to be sensitized on these rights to seek and demand appropriate and quality health care services.
“Addressing stigma and discrimination is crucial to ending the TB epidemic in Zimbabwe,” Matadi added. “It is a human rights issue that must be tackled to ensure TB patients are treated with respect, dignity, and access to the care they deserve.”
Director HIV &TB in the Ministry of Health, Dr Owen Mugurungi added that the country needs routine TB/HIV collaborative activities such as HIV testing to all TB patients, screening for TB among all HIV positive persons with chronic cough as well as providing with TB preventive therapy and ARVs to TB and HIV co-infected patients.
He noted that Zimbabwe should continue scaling up the training of health care workers in TB/HIV and strengthen DOTs implementation.
