As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2023 World Tuberculosis Day (WTD), the Federal Government says, only one in every four Nigerians is aware of the disease.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr Ekumankama Joseph Nkama, said this on Friday in Abuja, during the Ministerial Press Briefing to commemorate the WTD in Nigeria.
Nkama, while quoting the WHO’s global Tuberculosis (TB) Report said, it was regrettable that in spite of free testing and medication, Nigeria still ranked highest among countries with childhood Tuberculosis in the world.
The Minister added that Nigeria was one of the countries in the world with a great burden of TB and resistance to TB medications.
He emphasised the need for people coughing for more than two weeks to ensure they get tested, adding that “TB is a curable disease”.
“TB is a major public health problem globally, likewise in Nigeria. WTB day is a global event that enables us to access the progress made so far.
“According to WHO global TB report, Nigeria is ranked 6th in the world and first in Africa, it was revealed that there are 467,000 TB cases in Nigeria in 2021.
“Furthermore, only one out of every four Nigerians have knowledge about TB. The Federal Government is committed to ensuring the end of TB in the country.
“All the interventions of the Federal Government are yielding positive results. We have been able to expand the TB facilities from 2, 038 in 2014 to over 20,000.
“I, therefore, encourage Nigerians to be their brother’s keepers. Ensure that everyone around you with a cough for more than two weeks gets tested and treated,” Nkama said.
Similarly, the WHO Country Representative (WR), Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo said that the country at the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on Tuberculosis in 2018 made a commitment to diagnose and treat 1,109,000 TB cases and place 2,183,890 clients on TB preventive Therapy (TPT) from 2018 to 2022.
Mulombo was represented by WHO’s Technical Officer, Dr Laxmikant Chavan.
He, however, said that after the end of 2022, the country was yet to showcase achievements of this commitment, as available reports showed that the country was trailing behind in all the set targets.
He noted that TB control budgets in the country continued to be grossly inadequate and underfunded.
“About 69 per cent of the Tuberculosis budget in 2021 was unfunded; this is a major threat to the country’s efforts in achieving the set targets.
“Too many people are pushed into poverty when they contract TB due to lost income, transport costs and other expenses.
“71 per cent of the TB patients in Nigeria and their households are affected by catastrophic cost due to TB, ”‘ he explained.
He said that WHO would continue to support the country in developing and implementing guidelines, plans, frameworks and strategic documents to end the TB epidemic in the nation.
“We will facilitate research to provide evidence-based interventions and innovations for finding the missing TB cases and enhancing the country’s efforts in reaching the set targets.
Also, the Deputy Director, Office of HIV/ AIDS and TB USAID Nigeria, Ms Omosalewa Oyelaran, said since 2003, Nigeria remained in the top 10 countries affected by TB with one of the lowest detection rates globally.
Oyelaran said to combat this debilitating disease, USAID collaborated with the Government of Nigeria, and other national and international partners to support the National Tuberculosis Programme,
She noted that Since 2003, USAID had contributed more than $250 million to TB control efforts in the country.
“In 2022 alone, USAID programmes helped screen over 15 million individuals for TB. USAID’s support also includes the provision of TB screening, diagnostic, treatment, and preventive services in 18 states through community and facility-based interventions.
“ In partnership with the Government of Nigeria, USAID’s ‘Tuberculosis Accelerator’ model invested in local civil society organizations (CSOs) to increase access to quality TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, including multi-drug resistant TB.
“These local CSOs collaborate with the national and state TB programmes to deploy, and scale, state of the art equipment and tools to improve detection of Tuberculosis,” she explained.
She said that USAID also facilitated multi-sectoral public-private partnerships to increase public awareness and advocacy for domestic resources to address the TB epidemic in the country.
“As a result, Nigeria realised a significant increase in TB case finding and treatment coverage over the past three years.
“In spite of the additional challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have achieved significant results working together in partnership with the Government of Nigerian and Global Fund,” she said.