The Keta Municipality in 2021, lost 14 lives to Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by bacteria that mostly affect the lungs.

Mr Michael Kyere, Keta Municipal TB Coordinator, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency said the deaths were from a total of 128 TB cases diagnosed and put on treatment in the year.

He noted that in 2022, the Municipality recorded 114 new TB cases with all the cases put on treatment.

Mr Kyere also revealed that, “so far, 35 TB cases are already diagnosed and put on treatment this year.”

The TB Coordinator called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to deal with the stigma and discrimination often faced by people affected by TB to end the disease in the Municipality, Volta, and Ghana as a whole.

“One major challenge is contact tracing. Tracing contacts of index TB cases does not come easy due to the patient’s unwillingness to reveal to close relatives and contacts that they are diagnosed with TB and are on treatment. This is because they always feel they will be stigmatised and rejected.”

He advised people to report to health facilities when they start to cough with sputum for diagnosis to allow for early detection and treatment saying, treatment is free and accessible.