Dr. Shiferaw Kebede said TB remains to be a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Driven by HIV/AIDS, TB has become a formidable threat which requires a concreted effort to control.

The State Minister was speaking at an event organized here on Wednesday in connection with the 50th anniversary of the commencement in Ethiopia of operations by the German Leprosy and TB Relief Association.

The Ethiopian government as part of a Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP) and Health Sector Development, which also ties the MDGs introduced primary health care program that encompasses health posts, health extension workers and health centers.

Accordingly, he said 3,200 health extension workers are being recruited and training with a view to improving the quality of health extension program in the country.

The health extension workers would be assigned at health centers and each of them will conduct supportive supervision to ten health extension workers.

The German Leprosy and TB Relief Association has been providing financial, technical and logistical support in the fight against tuberculosis and leprosy here.

He said the partnership that was initiated with the Association 50 years ago has been long standing and continued to grow.

Deputy President of The German Leprosy and TB Relief Association, Gudrun Freifrau von Wiedersperg for her part said that since its early days of the association, its key mandate has always been the financial and technical support for humanitarian efforts in the fight against leprosy and TB.

Ethiopia being the birth place of the association has been receiving constant attention and resources since the beginning, she said and added that in the ling-standing cooperation between the association and the Ministry of Health, large numbers of patients suffering from the two diseases have been treated.

Recently, she said, 27 projects of various types are beneficiaries of the association’s financial, material and technical assistance in Ethiopia.

R-3:32-3:58 P.M

E-4:11-4:26

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