Shocking! Over 400 Nigerians die daily from Tuberculosis, says expert

About 430 Nigerians die daily from Tuberculosis and at least 157,000 annually in Nigeria, stakeholders in the health sector have revealed.

This was disclosed during the TB media roundtable organized by the Stop TB Partnership in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja on Monday.

Speaking at the event, the National Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Dr. Adebola Lawanson, explained that during the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, there has not been sufficient progress made in TB cases finding.

She added that tuberculosis, like other diseases, has been worse hit during this period due to resource relocation and realignment for COVID-19.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative for TB, Dr. Ayodele Awe, “COVID-19 has really affected the tuberculosis program this year. It has affected it negatively because we have not made as much progress in finding the cases.

“Nigeria is still missing 300,000 cases every year. We are only able to detect 25 percent of the estimated tuberculosis cases. Every LGA needs to have its own diagnostic tools. Presently, we have only 40 percent coverage of the LGAs with GeneXpert machines.

“Each year 157,000 persons die of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is still the top infectious killer. We need the same kind of Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for tuberculosis.

“The domestic resources for supporting tuberculosis are still very low. TB support is majorly funded through global funds and other partners. We need the government to be as committed as what they are doing in Kaduna state.

“The EOCs in each state should collaborate with the tuberculosis program because we have structures on ground that can be used to increase detection of more COVID-19 cases because we have 12,000 dot centres in the different communities.”

The Country Director of KNCV Foundation Nigeria, Dr. Bethrand Odume, in his remarks, urged the government to invest more resources into tackling tuberculosis. “We must not be all dependent on external donors because we have the capacity. The only way to go is an integrated approach to health service delivery,” he said.

Also speaking, the focal person for TB at the Institute for Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), Dr. Aderonke Agbaje, said, “COVID-19 is here to stay. Tuberculosis has really taken a hit in this regard with human resources, funds, and materials that have been relocated and realigned to attend to COVID-19 issues. We have had the GeneXpert machines, HIV labs etc., being redeployed to support the COVID-19 response.

“There is a need to assess the human resources for health, both at the federal and state level so that diseases like tuberculosis and other health issues are not being placed on the back burner in our response to COVID-19.”