Rate of TB cases decreases by 4%

The situation of the tuberculosis disease in Morocco has considerably improved with a regression of 4% in the rate of affected patients, said Moroccan Health Minister Abdelouahed El Fassi Monday in Casablanca.

Speaking at the opening of a World Health Organization inter-regional conference on the anti-tuberculosis initiative in the Maghreb, the minister said statistics show that tuberculosis is set to regress, mainly among youth aged below 30.

The minister expressed Morocco's readiness to support all initiatives to consolidate TB prevention and improve health care of TB patients.

He added that in Morocco, the national anti-TB program is based on the implementation of the WHO recommendations, mainly those involving basic health facilities and the Direct Observation Tuberculosis Strategy (DOTS) which has increased the diagnosis rate by 90% and reduced healing failure by 1%.

The three-day conference is debating control strategies adopted by Maghreban, African and west Mediterranean countries and anti-tuberculosis work plans.