Tuberculosis kills 420 Nigerians daily
Funding gap, a high tuberculosis burden and rising incidence of multi drug resistance are among factors hindering Nigeria’s fight against TB, leading to 420 Nigerian deaths daily.
According to the 2017 global TB report, Nigeria is among 14 countries with the highest burden for TB, TB/HIV and MDR-TB, it ranked 7th among the 30 high TB burden countries and 2nd in Africa. Every hour 47 Nigerians develop active TB, seven (7) of whom are children.
Experts say that the increasing gap in funding for TB control over the past five years has led to over 300,000 undiagnosed TB patients, a threat to the public health.
One of the models they suggested to improve TB control is public-private partnerships. This will help with implementation and intervention, which will in turn lead to a breakthrough in Nigeria’s fight to end Tuberculosis.
“Every day, 420 Nigerians die from Tuberculosis, an estimated 300,000 cases remain undetected with each of the undetected cases having the potential of infecting between 10 and 15 others. TB is not far from anyone,” said Adebola Lawanson, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (NTBLC).
Lawanson made this assertion while estimating the state of tuberculosis in the country at the Private and Public Mix (PPM) summit for tuberculosis control in Nigeria held in Lagos, September 03, organised by the World Health Organisation in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health and Lagos State Ministry of Health.
According to her “Nigeria has the second highest TB burden in Africa and seventh globally, affecting the poorest and most vulnerable in the country, especially those in their productive age,” said Lawanson.
Similarly, Lovett Lawson, board chair, Stop TB partnership Nigeria added that TB is curable if it is diagnosed early enough. Despite the significant challenges to the country’s public health institute, it can be controlled.
“Tuberculosis control in Nigeria is grossly underfunded, receiving less than 30 per cent of the required funding, there is a gross gap between the TB control and the amount needed to achieve the mission to universal access to service delivery” Lawson said.
The national Strategic Plan for TB control 2015- 2020 was a call to action for all stakeholders in Nigeria to mount a collective response to the challenges of Nigerian cases to eliminate this life threatening incurable aliment.
“By the virtue of our large population, particularly population density and our metropolitan nature, in Nigeria, Lagos State has the highest estimated burden of TB cases,” said Jide Idris, commissioner for Health Lagos State.
Idris in his welcome address stressed that most of the challenges of TB have to do with funding and these can be resolved.
“It is in this light that the summit has become so important and timely, there are huge resources in the private sector, and we wish to tap into some of these to drive out TB from our country.”
“This summit has been long overdue and I am glad that is holding at the right time, the time when it is required that all hands must be on deck to ensure that we stop TB by improving on national case detection and case management,” Idris said.
Tuberculosis is a communicable disease caused by bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis; the most frequent symptoms include cough of two weeks or more, weight loss, night sweat and loss of appetite.
Currently, there is no effective vaccine to prevent TB and about 104,904 cases were notified in 2017 out of the estimated 420, 000 huge TB cases in Nigeria.
However, Wondimagegnehu Alemu, the WHO representative of Nigeria represented by Lynda Ozor said that the burden of the disease in Nigeria is further fueled by the huge number of undetected TB cases (which we call missing cases), which serves as a pool of reservoir for the continuous transmission of the disease.
“We expect private corporate organisations, as well as the private health institutions to help in bridging one or more of the gaps associated with TB control as part of their corporate social responsibility and participate effectively in supporting the government in reducing the catastrophic impact and costs of tuberculosis on the citizens of this country” said Alemu.