As the world mark the 2023 World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, Aids Health Foundation has revealed that Nigeria’s TB situation deserves urgent attention, calling on governments and world leaders to be more committed in ending the disease, which it says is 100 percent preventable and treatable.
It said the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed the nation among the ten countries accounting for 64% of the global gap in TB case finding, with India, Indonesia and Nigeria accounting for almost half of the total gap.
The Foundation with theme, “Yes We Can End TB” said World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24 is about honoring the millions of lives lost to TB while renewing the urgency around prevention, treatment, and research for the world’s deadliest infectious disease, which has been a crisis for many decades.
In a statement made available to LEADERSHIP, AHF revealed that in 2021, TB claimed 1.6 million lives, and over 10 million people acquired TB, yet it remains woefully neglected and underfunded in many countries.
It said even though tuberculosis is a global epidemic, over 95% of TB deaths occur in lower-income countries.
Country Program Director, AHF Nigeria, Dr. Echey Ijezie in the statement said ending TB in Nigeria must come with intensified level of case finding and for patients who show up in hospitals to embrace treatment, which is free across health facilities in the country.
“Importantly, we must increase the funding available to TB, improve the level of education and awareness about TB, as well as engage pointedly, the rising incidences of stigma related to TB while not forgetting that TB is curable.
Ijezie further stated that, ‘‘Nigeria’s situation deserves urgent attention as the World Health Organization (WHO) lists the nation among the ten countries accounting for 64% of the global gap in TB case finding, with India, Indonesia and Nigeria accounting for almost half of the total gap.’’
Also speaking, AHF Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy, Terri Ford said AHF has made TB a top priority with efforts focused on educating its staff and clients, screening for TB in our clinics, and prioritizing, preventing, and treating HIV/TB co-infection, the number one cause of death for people living with HIV.
He said as a preventable and treatable disease, world leaders must do more to end TB, on World TB Day and beyond.
“With our World TB Day theme ‘Yes! We Can End TB,’ AHF urges all governments and public health institutions to do their part to ensure TB research, prevention, and treatment programs are fully funded and supported. We all must do more to finally stop TB worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries,” Ford said.
