…Ranks first in Africa with 467,000 TB annual burden
..Nigeria got only 37% out of $ 373m for control TB – Stop TB Nigeria
By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As Nigeria marks the 2023 World Tuberculosis Day, a World Health Organization, WHO global Report has shown that Nigeria is ranked 6th in the world and first in Africa with 467,000 annual cases.
The Minister of State for Health , Hon. Ekumankama Joseph Nkama made this known Friday in Abuja during a press conference to commemorate the day in Nigeria.
Nkama said, ” According to WHO global TB report, Nigeria is ranked 6th in the world and first in Africa, it was revealed that there are 467,000 TB cases in Nigeria in 2021″, accounting for about 4.6% of the global TB burden.
” Nigeria is ranked highest among with child TB in the world, the country is one of the countries in the world with a great burden on TB and resistance to TB medications.”
The Minister further noted that only 1 out of every Nigerian has the knowledge about TB, adding that as a way of eliciting more notifications government has expanded TB facilities to 2,038 in 2014 to over 20,000.
WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulumbo who was represented by Dr. Laxmikant Chavan WHO Technical Officer in his speech hinted that in 2018 Nigeria made a UN global commitment to diagnose and treat 1,109,000 TB cases and place 2,183,890 clients on TB preventive Therapy (TPT) from 2018 to 2022.
But regrettably, after the end of 2022, Nigeria has not demonstrated achievements of this commitment as available reports show that the country is trailing behind in all the set targets, Mulumbo said.
According to the WHO chieftain, TB control budgets in Nigeria is drastically underfunded.
About 69% of the TB budget in 2021 was unfunded, this is a major threat to the country’s efforts in achieving the set targets.”
The world health agency also lamented that TB pushs too many people into poverty when they contract it due to lost income, transport costs and other expenses. 71% of the TB patients in Nigeria and their household are affected by catastrophic cost due to TB.
Meanwhile, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Acting Board, Dr. Queen Ogbuji said that Nigeria needed $373 million for TB control in 2020, but only 31% was available and 24% of this came from the donors, only 7% was from domestic source.
Ogbuji said that Nigeria records an annual estimate of 479,000 TB cases out of which only 285, 561 were notified.
She commended Nigeria’s efforts at TB notifications and noted that the country has taken the right direction but needs to double efforts at closing the gap.
Meanwhile, Ogbuji disclosed that Children are not left out of TB disease burden which is often more severe in them with higher mortality among those less than 5 years old.
The notification of children with active TB disease has remained abysmally low at only 6% of out of the annual notification, she stated.
