Aisha Buhari seeks support of media in eradicating TB in Nigeria

…As survivors tell the real tuberculosis story

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has called on media practitioners to join the tuberculosis elimination campaign in order to end the disease in Nigeria.

Speaking while playing host to some key stakeholders to a dinner to celebrate TB champions and survivors in Nigeria at the presidential villa, Mrs Buhari urged media practitioners to assist stakeholders and report cases of tuberculosis from every nook and cranny of Nigeria.

The event which was organized by “The Stop TB Partnership Nigeria’’ to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day had in attendance TB survivors and other stakeholders.

Mrs. Buhari also urged stakeholders to make concerted efforts towards providing permanent solution to tuberculosis epidemic in Nigeria.

According to her, tuberculosis, despite being a curable disease, is still a major health challenge globally and remains the number one infectious killer disease in the world.

“In Nigeria, one of the major challenges of TB response is attributed to low cases of its discovery both in adult and children. This is attributed partly to poor knowledge about TB that influences the health seeking behaviour of people and low treatment coverage.” she said.

She challenged stakeholders to commit resources to ensure the end of TB epidemic.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Oluwafunke Dosumu, a TB survivor who was at the event stressed the need to address the issue of stigmatization and funding.

Telling her story on how she survived the disease through early detection, Dosumu added that until the issue of stigmatization is addressed, people will be afraid to speak out.

“But for stigmatization, people will be bold to come out. We need the awareness to fight the disease; we also need to address the issue of funding. Each fund meant for this purpose should be well utilized,’’ she added.

Another survivor, Temitope Adams, who narrated her woes at the event said that she lived in isolation for over seven years when she was diagnosed of the disease.

She called on Nigerians to always ensure that they undergo regular medical checkups and live healthy lifestyle adding that the disease is not a death sentence.

Earlier, Prof. Lovett Lawson, board chair, Stop TB partnership Nigeria in his opening remarks expressed worry that despite the significant progress made over the years, about 75 per cent of Nigerians with Tuberculosis (TB) are yet to be diagnosed or receive any form of treatment.

He added that Stop TB partnership will not relent in its efforts to partner federal government and other relevant agencies to combat TB scourge in Nigeria.

Also, representative the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, who was represented at the event by Dr. Lawanson Bola identified low TB case funding as one of the factors affecting fight against the disease.

While calling for collective responsibility to curb the menace, the minister lamented the funding gap saying, Nigeria currently has only 10 TB functioning lab and is funding just 25 per cent of TB cases.

“Low TB case funding is a big challenge because one TB case is prone to affecting about 22 people. There is need for the government to provide adequate funding to tackle the disease,” she added.