Fight against TB will not be won by healthcare workers alone

Isiolo TB Manyatta Hospital signboard, whose patients’ houses are now occupied by the National Youth Service. [File, Standard]

For decades, people believed the fight against Tuberculosis (TB) belonged to healthcare workers and the Ministry of Health alone. We were wrong. As we mark World TB Day 2026, the truth is clear. The real front line is not a hospital ward, but the seat of several matatus, a factory loading zone, a garage along Grogan and Baricho Road in Nairobi, a primary school classroom, a church and mosque in Kisumu, Kakamega, Turkana, Mombasa or Migori, and the desk of an HR manager in Nairobi. TB spreads where people live and work, and that means stopping it must begin there. If we are to finally turn the tide, every Kenyan must become a defender of our nation’s breath.