Concerned stakeholders in the control, treatment and management of tuberculosis in Plateau State have tasked the State Government to make more funds available for the management of the disease.
This came as Maxwell Jublick, Programme Manager, Tuberculosis (TB), Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme in Plateau State (PLSTBLCP), has said that over 1,500 cases of the disease have been detected in the first quarter of this year (Q1 2024) in the State.
Jublick, who spoke at technical dialogue sessions on tuberculosis funding, treatment and control under the auspices of the USAID- sponsored Northern Nexus Cluster for the control of Tuberculosis in Northern Nigeria held at the KRP-FEMA office in Jos, decried the low funding in the fight against the scourge in Plateau State.
He said that funding had been largely driven by the development partners – USAID and GlobalFund, adding that Plateau State had no funding line for tuberculosis control, leading to a surge in the frequency of the disease in the State.
The Programme Manager said that the last release of fund for TB programme was during the last administration, adding that even at that the release was not enough to cover the funding gap in TB control programmes.
Jubilik, who was represented by the Lenkat Joseph Mukan, underlined many challenges that hampered active case finding and cause increased mortality rate among patients with TB to include lack of training of Local Government TB and Leprosy Supervisors (LGTBLSs) at the Zaria training center, inadequate weighing Scales, quarterly continuous On-site Data Validation, outreaches to slumps, schools and correctional facilities, commemoration of World TB Day, DOTS (Direct Observation Treatment Sites), Refresher training for DOTS officers and administrative Cost.
Others, he said, included purchase of New laptops for State team members, printers, funds to support quarterly State to local Government area facility supervisory visits as well as quarterly State review meeting for non-Global Fund supported members of the State TB Programme, CSOs and Ministry of Health.
He said, “Normally we start with screening the patients by the signs and symptoms of TB. SO there must be adequate screening that’s the first thing and when we screen we get some, the samples have to be adequate so that we can can be diagnosed.
“Then if we take the samples to the lab we don’t have all the equipment to diagnose tb. We have just a few ideally we are supposed to have it in every local government like the
gene expert machine that diagnosed the tb and then sometimes uh materials for the recording too.
“We need human resource too which is very important . Lack of human resource could contribute to that. that too, and also training. We need to build the capacity the human resource is not it’s there even if human resources there you need to train people to do the work and training involves a lot of funds too”.
Kaneng Rwang Pam, the Executive Director, KRP- FEMA, said that the aim of the engagements were to create awareness about TB and funding lacuna.
She said that there was the need for increase in local funding, especially the payment of the counterpart funding to bridge the gap as donors were already becoming fatigued.
Rwang Pam said, “Our aim is to bring everybody on board – government, public and private sector, faith-based and humanitarian organisations and individuals – to contribute their little quota to the fight against TB.
“And to do this, we have embarked on a lot of advocacy visits to government, MDAs, organisations, health institutions, private sector and well meaning individuals to sensitise them on the need to embark on aggressive measures to halt the spread of this menace.”
Peter Ezekiel, the Executive Director, Eagle Lead Development Initiative (ELDI), said there was the need for increased political and administrative commitment so as to encourage legislators to give TB control a priority in the State’s health agenda by guaranteeing TB programmes receive steady funding and support.
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