…USAID contribute $250m in 10 yrs
….Minister laments high burden despite free testing, treatment
By Hassan Zaggi
The Tuberculosis (TB) situation in Nigeria is giving the international community sleepless nights, as according to them, the situation is not improving as expected.
This is even as they have called on the federal government to act fast by improving the funding to the TB programme in order to save the situation.
Speaking in Abuja at the commemoration of Word TB Day, weekend, the Deputy Director, Office of HIV/ AIDS and TB USAID Nigeria, Omosalewa Oyelaran, lamented that since 2003, Nigeria has consistently remained among the top 10 countries affected by TB, with one of the lowest detection rates globally.
“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, inclusion of TB services in health insurance schemes, and enhanced private sector engagement,” she said.
Oyelaran disclosed that in order to ensure sustained progress in the fight against the disease, the USAID, has over the years collaborated with the federal government and other national and international partners to support the National TB Program in the country.
She, however, revealed that since 2003, USAID has contributed more than $250 million to TB control efforts in Nigeria, lamenting that the result is not encouraging.
According to her, in 2022 alone, USAID programs helped screen over 15 million individuals for TB, noting that 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 ‘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 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.”
Oyelaran noted that with the support of the USAID and other international partners, “Nigeria realized a significant increase in TB case finding and treatment coverage over the past three years.
“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.
On his part, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, recalled that, Nigeria at the United Nations High Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB 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.
He, however, regretted that as at the end of 2022, Nigeria is yet to demonstrate achievements of this commitment as, according to him, available reports show that the country is trailing behind in all the set targets.
He decried the manner and way TB control budgets in Nigeria continue to be drastically underfunded.
“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 household are affected by catastrophic cost due to TB.
“WHO will continue to support Nigeria in developing and implementing guidelines, plans, framework and strategic documents to end 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.”
The WHO Country Representative, however, reiterated the commitment of the WHO to continue to support Nigeria to ensure that the target of ending TB in the country is achieved.
“We will continue to work with the programme to build capacity of senior and middle-level managers across the states on the needed knowledge and skills for improving quality of care and data analysis towards formulating evidence-based policies for enhancing programme performance at all levels.
“In addition, we will continue to support monitoring of the programme at all levels, in real-time, to identify challenges and advice on strategies to address the challenges.
“Finally, let me pledge WHO’s continued support in strengthening partnership and innovations towards the attainment of set targets as well as leveraging on the country’s primary health care strengthening initiatives to end TB epidemic in Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, disclosed that about 97 percent of TB patients in the country had documented HIV results.
This, according to him, is far higher than the global and African region averages of 76 and 86 percent respectively.
Represented by the Minister of State for Health, Mr Ekumankama Nkama, Ehanire regretted that only one in every four Nigerians know about tuberculosis.
He lamented that it was unfortunate that despite the efforts of the federal government to provide free TB testing and treatment in all health facilities in the country, Nigeria still ranked highest among countries with child TB in the world.
Ehanire who added that the country is one of the countries in the world with a great burden on TB and resistance to TB treatment emphasised the need for people coughing for more than two weeks to ensure they get tested.
“TB is a curable disease. The world TB day is a global event, the event enables us to access the progress made so far. TB is a major public health problem globally, like wise in Nigeria,” the Minister said.
