By Hassan Zaggi
As an evidence of improvement in the fight against Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria, for the first time, TB case notification in the country may rise to 200,000 by the end of 2021.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, disclosed this at the year 2021 National TB Conference, in Abuja, on Tuesday, with the theme: ‘Sustaining a Resilient TB Response In Nigeria: Addressing the Impact of COVID-19 and other Diseases.”
Nine months into the year 2021, according to him, Nigeria has already surpassed the total number of TB cases notified in all of 2020 by about 7 per cent.
While applauding critical stakeholders in the fight against TB in the country, the Minister said: “I like to commend all who are making this happen, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), Global Fund, USAID and other USG agencies and their partners, KNCV, Stop TB partnership, the TB network, community based organizations and health workers who are the foot soldiers, for their hard work in the fight to end TB in Nigeria.”
Ehanire, however, regretted that Nigeria still has a long way to go to reach the targets for ending the TB epidemic, noting that “most of our TB cases are yet undetected. We are not as close as we would like to the United Nations High Level Meeting (UNHLM) target on TB case finding, TB Preventive Treatment (TPT) and other TB thematic areas set to be achieved by 2022 and the milestones for ending TB in Nigeria.
“We must therefore work with our partners to accelerate and scale up our current efforts significantly, mobilize needed domestic and international resources for implementing the National TB strategic Plan 2021-2025, to end the TB epidemic in Nigeria.”
Speaking earlier, the Wife of the President, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, noted that despite the impact of COVID-19, Nigeria has done considerably well in the fight against TB.
“Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria still made progress in case detection and treatment. But we need to intensify effort to recover lost ground.
“It is important that we should not loss sight of TB which has been around us much longer and continue to kill people in Nigeria in an alarming rate.
“Since my appointment as Global TB Champion and Ambassador I have used my position to push TB issues among stakeholders at the National, Regional and Global levels. At this forum in 2018 , I promise to cascade this effort by appointing all the wives of governors as state TB champions and it has been a game changer as it is helping to create more awareness about TB up to the community levels. This effort has increase TB advocacy and mobilisation all over Nigeria and will help to galvanise the much needed support from the Federal, state and Local Government levels. “
While presenting a goodwill message, the WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, regretted that 70% of the estimated TB cases in Nigeria in 2020 were not detected despite the increase in TB notification.
This undetected TB cases, he said, continues to fuel the spread of the disease in the community.
Represented by the Deputy WHO Representative, Mr. Chimbaru Alexander, Mulombo said that being a technical partner, the WHO will be supporting the National TB programme at all levels in the development of guidelines, SOPs, adoption of new strategies, regimen and interventions in addition to building capacities and enhancing data analysis and use for optimizing performance.
“We will also support the country in the implementation of the multi-sectoral approach towards ending TB epidemic in Nigeria,” he said.
