Malawi is doing well in the attainment of indicators for fighting Tuberculosis one of which is the treatment success rate which is presently at 88%.

The programme manager for National Tuberculosis Control Programme in the ministry of health Dr James Mpunga unraveled this as the country joins the global community to observe  the World Tuberculosis Day which falls on 24 March annually.

“Prevalence of drug resistance TB is at 5% among people who have suffered from Tuberculosis before according to two surveys that have been conducted so far,” he said.

Mpunga stated that on community TB Malawi is also doing well, people are participating in the fight against Tuberculosis.

He added that awareness on the disease has also been intensified after realizing in 2012 through the national TB prevalence survey  that knowledge on the disease was minimal.

“We have been going out to raise awareness, engaging local communities in the fight against Tuberculosis and we are going to do another survey to see if there have been any changes,” Mpunga said.

Among other community initiatives to fight TB are, door to door screening and collection of sputum from communities.

The day is being commemorated under the theme ‘The clock is ticking’.