Tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that most often affect the lungs, has remained a burden in Nigeria.
According to the 2018 global TB report, Nigeria is not only among the 30 high burden countries for TB, TB/HIV and multi drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) but is also ranked 6th among the 30 high TB- burden countries and the first in Africa.
The report estimated that tuberculosis kills 18 Nigerians every hour, with 49 people developing active TB every hour, seven of which are children.
Skeholders in the health sector have, however, attributed the challenges of TB response in the country to low TB case findings both in adults and children, poor TB treatment access, poor awareness and huge funding gap.
They expressed worry that Nigeria may not meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of ending the disease by 2030.
According to the country director of KNCV Foundation, Dr Bethrand Odume, funding gap for TB control in Niger is 60 per cent, adding that of the available 40 per cent of the over $200million needed, only eight per cent are made available by the government and 32 per cent from donor agencies, especially USAID.
Also, the nation has a huge gap of about 300,000 missing cases of TB in the community with only 25 per cent of health facilities in the country covered with effective TB service. (That is about 8,000 health facilities; both tertiary, secondary and primary health facilities across the country).
More worrisome is the fact that each case not detected can infect 10 -15 persons in a year.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air. A person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.
World TB day is a global event commemorated on the 24th of March every year to raise public awareness on TB and efforts made to prevent and treat the disease.
The theme of world TB day this year is “The clock is ticking”, fully aligns with our upcoming Unified Branded TB Umbrella Campaign and National Guidelines for TB Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation.
Speaking during the launch of Unified TB Campaign and the ACSM Guideline, in commemoration of this year’s World TB Day, on Tuesday in Abuja, the minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the main drivers of the TB burden in the country are under-nutrition, HIV, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use, with over 400,000 estimated TB cases in 2019.
He expressed worry that the working age group of Nigerians, 15 – 44 years, is most affected by TB morbidity and mortality, with over 150,000 estimated TB deaths in 2019.
The minister, represented by the minister of state for health, Dr. Adeyeye Mamora, said “A key challenge to our control effort has been the slow pace of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for TB services. TB DOTS services were only available in 31 per cent of health facilities. The current coverage of GeneXpert machines, the first-line test for TB diagnosis, is barely 41per cent, 317 out of 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs).”
However, Ehanire said in order to promote community ownership of TB control and discourage stigmatisation of presumptive and confirmed TB patients, community TB interventions are implemented through community-based organisations.
“Community contribution to our national TB case notification rose to 22% in 2019.
“In furtherance to our robust public-private mix DOTS (PPM-DOTS) engagement plan, we have now scaled up to all states. This has demonstrated incremental value to TB notification; from 12 per cent private sector contribution in 2018 to as high as 45 per cent in some states. Collaboration with private laboratories for GeneXpert services has also improved TB diagnosis.
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