By Hassan Zaggi
The Acting Board Chairperson, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Dr Queen Ogbuji-Ladipo, has advised the Federal and states governments to prioritize the health of Nigerians.
This, according to her, is only sure way to end the scourge of Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria.
She, therefore, called on the government to increase funding for TB so as to reduce the burden of the disease in Nigeria
“Above all, we want to call on the government to put the health of the citizens as priority and in this instance, we are talking about increasing the funding for TB so that we can reduce the burden of TB in Nigeria.
“There is still 68 to 70 per cent funding gap for TB in Nigeria and the 30 per cent that has been available for TB control in Nigeria, 24 per cent out of that is from donors, so there is more for the government to do,” she stressed.
Dr. Ogbuji-Ladipo gave the advice at the pre-World TB Day media briefing put together by the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) and the Stop TB Partnership, Nigeria, in Abuja, yesterday.
The 2023 WTBD is with the theme is “Yes! We can end TB with the slogan in Nigeria “Get involved”.
She also called on stakeholders including community leaders, civil society organisations, states and national programmes, academia, media, private sector and governments at all levels to join hands in ensuring that TB becomes a thing of the past in Nigeria, insisting that: ”We all have roles to play.”
While calling on critical stakeholders to continue to support efforts to end TB in Nigeria, Dr. Ladipo said: “Nigeria has made significant progress in the last few years to increase TB case notification, however, we still have some gaps.
“Presently, at the end of 2022, the programme was able to achieve 60 per cent performance of TB case notification.
“That shows that the country is making progress, but we still have large gap to close.
“We urge the media to continue to create more awareness about TB. The community based organisations to continue to work within our communities to identify TB cases and to carry out preventive activities.
“We are very appreciative of our donors, USAID is here, we are very optimistic of your continued support to us.”
On the other hand, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Nigeria has made considerable progress in the fight against TB but, however, called on the federal government to work hard in the area of case notification.
The WHO National Professional Officer for TB in Nigeria, Dr. Enang Oyama, who made the disclosure, assured that the WHO will continue to support Nigeria in its efforts towards ending TB.
He said: “Nigeria has made progress in case notification in the last five years from over 207,785 in 2021 to over 285,000, representing a 37 per cent increase.
“Sadly, we still have 171,159 missing TB cases. This large number are reservoirs that fuel ongoing transmission in the community.
On his part, the Executive Director of KNCV Nigeria, Dr. Bethrand Odume, insisted that TB funding remains a key challenge in Nigeria.
Dr. Odume who is the chairman of the 2023 National World TB Day planning committee, reiterated that: “Funding for TB has remained a key challenge to support program activities towards closing the TB treatment coverage gap which stands at 66 per cent as at the end of 2021.
“At a 69 per cent funding gap, and over reliance on external donor agencies for funding, sustaining the TB program in Nigeria will continue to remain a challenge.
“We will at this year’s World TB Day celebration continue to reach out to the government and the private sector to galvanize efforts at increasing domestic resources for the control of TB in Nigeria.”
On his part, the National Coordinator National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, insisted that TB is an infectious disease and that it is not caused by witchcraft or any diabolical means.
He explained that the disease is caused by a bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis, hence, cannot be contracted by shaking of hands and by hugging.
While calling on the media to intensify awareness creation about the disease, Dr. Anyaike lamented that Nigeria is number one in Africa and still the sixth globally.
“We need to make much awareness creation and I’m challenging our colleagues from the media angle to help us, you have done so well, at least before it was 25% of Nigerians not knowing much about tuberculosis and the burden in Nigeria but we still have a lot of problems.
“As the number one principle of primary prevention, awareness creation comes in, we need to make much noise and it shouldn’t be just on an annual basis. We should try as much as possible to let people know, people hear of TB, I want us to expand it to tuberculosis,” he explained.
It would be recalled that the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria in an advisory two days ago regretted that a considerable percentage of the funds for the fight against the disease is donor-driven.
“Of the $373 million needed for TB control in Nigeria in the year 2020, only 31% was available to all the implementers of TB control activities in Nigeria (7% domestic and 24% donor funds), with a 69% funding gap.
“The 7% domestic contribution is mainly for personnel,” the group said.
Nigeria, the group revealed, has a high triple burden of TB, Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) and HIV-associated TB, and is one of the 10 countries that contribute the highest number of missing TB cases globally
According to the Stop TB Partnership, Nigeria also ranks first in Africa and sixth in the world, accounting for about 4.6% of the global TB burden
“An estimated 15 Nigerians die each hour due to TB, equivalent to about 347 deaths daily, 10,417 monthly and 125,000 in a year.
“Nigeria’s TB incidence rate is about 219 in a 100,000 population with an estimated total of 467,000 persons who have active TB disease. In 2021, the National TB, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Program (NTBLCP) notified 207,785 having a gap of 56% of the estimated cases unidentified.
“In 2021 about 2,975 DR-TB cases were diagnosed out of an estimated 21,000 cases in the country, leaving out more than 80% of the resistant cases missing
“Whereas Directly Observed Treatment short course (DOTs) clinics for TB treatment and care are available in up to 50% of health facilities in Nigeria, only 9% of these have facilities for laboratory diagnosis of TB infection and disease,” the group said.
