World Tuberculosis Day: Only 30% of Nigerians are aware of their status

 … as 52% of health workers have no knowledge.

Ahead of the World Tuberculosis Day on March 24, health practitioners say only a paltry 30 percent of Nigerians with tuberculosis (TB) are aware of their status and are receiving proper treatments.

Nigeria has been ranked fourth on the list of countries with the highest cases of TB worldwide, and a major contributor is because only 52 percent of health workers have knowledge about treatment and prevention of the disease.
This is the view of Gidado Mustapha, director of KNCV, an organisation that partners the Federal Ministry of Health in TB control, treatment and prevention, while addressing a pre-press briefing in Abuja, last week to mark the 2017 World Tuberculosis.

Despite some progress in the pipeline for new diagnostics, drugs and regimens, and vaccines, TB research and development remain severely underfunded, experts say.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2016 Global TB report, Nigeria has the highest TB burden in Africa and ranked fourth in the world, and among the six countries that accounted for 60 percent of the global burden of TB.

“Other countries are India, Indonesia, China, Pakistan and South Africa. Equally, Nigeria and India accounted for 48 percent of global TB deaths among HIV-negative people and for 43 percent of the combined total TB deaths in HIV-negative and HIV-positive people,” the report notes.

The same report also reveals that Nigeria is among the 10 countries that accounted for 77 percent of the global gap in TB case finding. In 2016, Nigeria was responsible for less than 20 percent of the total TB cases estimated for that year.

The report says that more than 80 percent TB cases in the country are undetected, implying that, there are lots of undiagnosed TB cases in the community, which serve as a reservoir for continue transmission of TB and over 1.5 million lives annually in the country.
Adebola Lawanson, national coordinator of National TB and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), says nearly eight out of every 10 cases of TB go undetected.

“Therefore, more than 80 percent of TB cases in the country are undetected, implying there are lots of undiagnosed TB cases in the community, which serve as reservoir for continued transmission of TB,” Lawanson says.

The Federal Ministry of Health has declared 2017 as a year to accelerate finding of TB cases amid concern Nigeria is among 10 countries that account for 77 percent of missing TB cases globally.

Lawanson says Nigeria’s declaration aims at mobilising political commitment and resources from all levels of government and partners for the implementation of strategic TB case interventions for early TB case finding and prompt treatment.
WHO calls for research and development of new antibiotics to tackle the threat that drug-resistant diseases including TB pose to human health.

Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO, said in the past 50 years, only two new antibiotics addressing drug-resistant tuberculosis had made it to the third phase of trials.
Chan said these medicines were now being tested on patients to assess efficacy, effectiveness and safety, and would still had to pass the final stage before they could be sold.

“More than $800 million per year is currently necessary to fund badly needed research into new antibiotics to treat tuberculosis,” Chan said.

She further explained that the drug-resistant TB was a condition in which the disease-causing organism was resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin, the two most potent TB drugs.

According to Chan, there were an estimated 580,000 cases and 250,000 related deaths in 2015, about 14 percent of all TB related deaths for the year, and only 125,000 were started on treatment, and just half of those people were cured.

Anthonia Obokoh