For Nigeria to achieve reduction in Tuberculosis (TB) burden, stakeholders in TB control have called for urgent action against the increasing cases of undetected TB in the country.
The stakeholders are calling for renewed political commitment and increased domestic funding to tackle the menace.
Citing the 2017 WHO Global TB report, the experts described the situation as worrisome while appealing for increased awareness on TB at national, state and local levels.
The 2017 WHO Global TB report revealed that Nigeria was among the ten countries that accounted for 64 percent of the global gap in TB case finding with India, Indonesia and Nigeria alone accounting for almost half the total gap.
The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), recently revealed that about 302, 096 out of 407, 000 cases of tuberculosis went undetected in 2017.
Speaking at different fora to mark this year’s World Tuberculosis Day in Nigeria, the stakeholders said, achieving reduction in TB incidence rate would be a mirage, if something drastic was not done concerning undetected cases.
World’s Tuberculosis Day is commemorated every 24th March, and this year’s theme was “Find and Notify all TB cases while the slogan was “Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free Nigeria.”
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, in his speech, expressed concern over the country’s low TB case finding for both adult and children. Adewole said in 2017, Nigeria was among the 10 countries that account for 64 percent of the global gap in TB case finding.
He explained: “The major drawback in Nigeria’s TB program is low TB case finding for both adult and children as there are a lot of missing TB cases that were either not diagnosed or diagnosed but not reported.”
He, however, said that in response to the country’s huge burden of TB, the Federal Ministry of Health has developed a robust National Strategic plan (NSP) for TB which is expected to bring down the menace of missing cases by 2020.
According to him: “The country has now moved from passive to active case-finding in key affected populations, including PLHIV, children, urban slum dwellers, prisoners, migrants, internally displaced people and facility-based health care workers, to target those most at risk for TB.”
For Prof. Dipo Ladipo, Chief Executive Officer, Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), tuberculosis detection in Nigeria was running at a level of about 17 per cent due to many reasons.
He said ARFH was a principal recipient of the Global Fund, and the association was working with the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme to improve awareness on TB at national, state and local levels.
Ladipo urged government to increase domestic funding of the tuberculosis response programme and encourage local production of TB drugs, stressing that most of the TB drugs in Nigeria were provided by donor agencies.
He said a lot more political commitment and funding was required from governments at all levels to bring down Nigeria’s TB scourge. “Government’s political commitment towards fighting the scourge of TB is not enough. Government put in about four out of 15 percent supposedly set aside as TB commitment”, he added.
He, therefore, urged the media and other key stakeholders to evangelise tuberculosis and make it more visible public health concern because of the magnitude of the problem and mode of transmission.
On his part, National Coordinator of NTBLCP, Adebola Lawanson, said the Federal Ministry of Health has declared 2018 a year to accelerate finding and notification of TB cases to address the problem.
He said Nigeria’s declaration was aimed at mobilising political commitment and resources from all levels of government and partners for the implementation of strategic TB case interventions for early TB case finding and prompt treatment.
Lawanson, however, noted that “achieving the reduction in TB incidence rate for attainment of the 90-90-90 target of the END TB strategy will be a mirage, if something drastic is not done.”
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has also renewed its commitment to assist the Federal Ministry of Health to find and treat thousands of missing tuberculosis cases in Nigeria.
Ms Minal Amin, Group Lead, Tuberculosis and Resource Mobilisation, USAID Nigeria, who disclosed this, said USAID has been supporting the government of Nigeria’s response to tuberculosis since 2003, adding that USAID had a shared goal with government on reducing tuberculosis related deaths and disability.
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