*Tasks govts on functional healthcare care system
The Executive Director of KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation at the Hague in the Netherlands Dr. Mustapha Gidado has warned that disruptions to health services caused by COVID-19 could lead to an increase in tuberculosis deaths.
Dr Godado who was speaking during a virtual press conference lamented that COVID-19 pandemic has weakened several interventions made by health bodies.
He described as unfortunate that despite significant progress over the last decades, TB remains worlds deadliest infectious killer.
According to Dr Gidado, if the development continue unchecked, it might lead to increase in more TB deaths in the country.
He called on governments at all levels to put in place functional health care systems to effectively control Tuberculosis in the country.
“For tuberculosis, the greatest impact would be from reductions in timely diagnosis and treatment of new cases, which could result from any prolonged period of COVID-19 suppression interventions.
“Governments can also leverage on the existing resources for the COVID-19 to improve the overall health care systems.
“Also, there is need for more community participation and engagement as well as awareness to reduce the prevalence of TB in the country.
“A major focus in the longer term is likely to be improving the resilience of the health system to cope with shock events such as pandemics, and the changes necessary could be far-reaching”, he said.
Dr. Gidado who added that the major challenge of TB response in Nigeria is to low case findings both in adult and children reaffirmed the readiness of his organization to work with countries that have high burden TB to ensure effective care is provided for all patients.
