The Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire has called on well-meaning Nigeria to support the effort of the government in disseminating information about the free testing of Tuberculosis to enable its eradication in the country.
Ehanire made the call at a ministerial press briefing in commemoration of this year’s World TB Day in Abuja.
Represented by the minister of state for health Ekumankama Joseph Nkama, said despite mechanisms put to address barriers to tuberculosis treatment, and detection Nigeria is still lacking, making her the highest-ranked TB burden globally.
Thus urging those coughing for more than two weeks to get tested for a healthier lifestyle.
“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 1 out of every 4 Nigerian know about TB. The federal government is committed to ensuring the end of TB in Nigeria. All the interventions of the Federal Government, are yielding positive results. We have been able to expand the TB facilities to 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.”
On his part, the WHO Country Representative (WR) Dr. Walter Mulombo, represented by Dr. Laxmikant Chavan laments Nigeria’s inability to achieve the UN’s high-level commitment to ending TB by 2030.
Even as he expressed worries over the country’s TB control underfunding.
“About 69% of the TB 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% of the TB patients in Nigeria and their households are affected by catastrophic costs due to TB.
“WHO will continue to support Nigeria in developing and implementing guidelines, plans, framework, and strategic documents to end the TB epidemic in Nigeria. In addition, 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.
“Finally, let me pledge WHO’s continued support in strengthening partnerships and innovations towards the attainment of set targets as well as leveraging on the country’s primary health care strengthening initiatives to end the TB epidemic in Nigeria.”
Earlier, the Deputy Director, Office of HIV/ AIDS and TB USAID Nigeria, Omosalewa Oyelaran further canvas for more partnerships to boost TB screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
“We commend the Government of Nigeria’s efforts to sustain the accelerated service delivery that resulted in yearly case notification increases of 160 percent between 2019 and 2022.
“However, much remains to be done if Nigeria is to meet its TB control target of ending the TB epidemic by 2035. We must continue to work together to reach all TB patients and their contacts in Nigeria.
“In partnership with the Government of Nigeria, USAID’s ‘TB 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 programs to deploy, and scale, state-of-the-art equipment and tools to improve the detection of TB. USAID also facilitates multi-sectoral public-private partnerships to increase public awareness and advocate for domestic resources to address the TB epidemic in Nigeria. As a result, Nigeria realized a significant increase in TB case finding and treatment coverage over the past three years.
“However, the greatest challenge is the funding gap, which is estimated to be 70 percent of the resources needed to effectively control TB.
“Therefore, I call on you to mobilize domestic resources to meet this funding gap through budgetary allocations, the inclusion of TB services in health insurance schemes, and enhanced private sector engagement.”
Meanwhile, the Ag. Board Chair, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Dr. Queen Ogbuji commends the TB case notification increase stressing that the progress recorded will tackle TB-related deaths in the country.
“TB disease is often more severe in children with higher mortality among those less than 5 years old. The notification of children with active TB disease has remained abysmally low at only 6% of the annual notification.”
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s world TB day with the theme “Yes We Can End TB” it is believed a lot needs to be done to close the gap.
