As the world commemorates World Tuberculosis Day2022 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis, Nigeria’s National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) has raised alarm over the rising cases of tuberculosis in the country.
He said not less than 440, 000 new infections are recorded yearly. National Coordinator of NTBLCP, Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, expressed concern over this, stating that it was quite worrisome that Nigeria has stayed on top in cases of tuberculosis in Africa, and sixth in the world.
Sadly, Nigeria is also one of the 10 countries that account for about 70 per cent of the global gap between the estimated global incidence of multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) each year and the number of people enrolled in treatment in 2020. The incidence rate is 219/100,00 giving an estimated 452,000 TB cases in 2020.
“Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gun powder when it comes to Tuberculosis. So we are working on three-prong strategies, one is prevention and that is why we gathered all of you here to, let people know that TB is preventable and what to prevent themselves, the second one is effective and efficient diagnosis, we are scaling up diagnostic platforms to enable us detect more cases and place them on treatment because TB is curable and treatment is free. We need to break the chain of transmission and end TB.” The National Coordinator, NTBLCP said.
Deputy Director, Malaria and Tuberculosis, Breakthrough ACTION, Nigeria, Dr. Bolatito Aiyenigba, stressed the need to find the missing TB cases as the current case finding is only around 26 percent.
Dr. Aiyenigba further revealed that about 74 percent of TB cases in the country are not detected or reported, adding that these people may be transmitting TB to others in their various communities.
“There is need to close the gap for Nigeria to end TB transmission”, she said, adding that the organisation would continue to partner with the Nigerian government to accomplish the goal of the NTBLCP.
March 24 is set aside to raise public awareness and drive efforts to end the global tuberculosis epidemic.