Tuberculosis burden is not new and Nigeria accounts for the six highest burden of TB among the 22 countries with the worst cases, according to World Health Organisation (WHO).
Despite significant progress made globally over the last decades, TB has continues to be among the top most infectious killer disease, claiming over 4,500 lives daily.
Funding gap, 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 and 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.
The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) to tuberculosis poses a major health security threat and could reverse the gains made in the fight against TB globally and Nigeria in particular.
According to Lovett Lawson, the chairperson of the board, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, said that about $312 Million will be needed to meet the target of ending the scourge of TB in the country by 2030 and there is a need for government to increase its current budget for Tuberculosis by 76 per cent, if Nigeria is to eliminate the disease burden by 2030.
“Total funding from the Federal Government and international donors for the control of this deadly disease in Nigeria is only about 24 per cent of what is required if we are to end TB in 2030,” says Lawson.
This means that Nigeria needs xxx to eliminate the disease by 2030.
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by a small germ (micro-organism) known as Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. It is highly contagious as people nearby may breathe in these bacteria from infected air and become infected.
Coughing for two or more weeks, and sometimes with blood-streaked sputum, fever and chills, chest pains, sweating at night trouble breathing, loss of appetite, weight loss and feeling tired most of the time are symptoms of TB.
The threat to TB infection and poor lung health and breathing is aggravated by exposure to risk factors such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, asthma, smoking and pneumonia.
Persons infected with both TB and Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV), without treatment, stand the risk of death. With early detention of TB even with HIV infection is curable, with early medical attention.
Globally, the incidence of TB is not declining fast enough to end the disease as envisaged under the Sustainable Development Goals 2.
In Nigeria, 47 Nigerians develop active TB, seven (7) of whom are children every hour, data from the 2017 global TB report states.
In 2014, Nigeria developed a national strategic plan for TB control which is to run between 2015 – 2020 is to provide citizens with universal access to high-quality, patient-centred prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for TB, TB/HIV and drug-resistant TB by 2020 but the programme has recorded very little success.
To this effect, Nigeria has been advised to increase investments in Tuberculosis (TB) care and prevention as current investments fall far short of the levels required to end the epidemic by 2030―the end date of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
