Abuja, 27 November 2014 — Based on a National Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey Report released in Abuja yesterday, an estimated four million ninety seven thousand, one hundred and fourteen (4, 097, 114) cases of TB are estimated to occur.
The cases, the report say, are estimated to occur between next year and the year 2020.
Of the figure, approximately 901, 365 are expected to be co-infected with HIV, and 196, 661 will have multidrug resistant TB.
Concerned about these figures, experts yesterday called for massive scale-up of effort, with a focus on new approaches to old problems required to meet the overwhelming needs of people with all forms of TB.
Similarly, the National Strategic Plan for TB Control (2015-2020) also released in Abuja yesterday put the cost of reaching the ambitious goal of universal access to high-quality TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment services by 2020 at $2.53 billion.
According to the report, this is enormous and would require the support of the government at all levels, development partners, organized private sectors, civil society organizations and well-meaning individuals.
The National Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Control was produced by the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme and the Department of Public Health of the Federal Ministry of Health.
Minister of State and Supervising Minister of Health, Khaliru Alhassan, who spoke at the launch of the reports in Abuja, described it as a call to action for all stakeholders in Nigeria to mount a massive and coordinated response to the challenges that Nigeria faces in eliminating TB.
Alhassan said that until recently, the burden of TB in Nigeria was based on estimates adding that it s heart-warming that the Federal Ministry of Health with the support of development partners successfully conducted the first national TB prevalence survey in the country.
He explained that TB is transmitted through the air, which puts everyone at risk of being infected with the germs with an estimated nine million new TB cases globally in 2013; TB remains a disease of major public importance.
He said that based on projections from the survey result, Nigeria diagnosed and reported only 16% of the estimated TB cases in 2013 stressing that with this very low TB case detection rate, the country accounted for 15% (about 500,000) of the 3.3 million TB cases that were either not diagnosed or diagnosed but not notified in 2013.
The Minister noted that government was committed to tackling the problems posed by TB pointing out that the lessons learnt from the recent containment of the Ebola virus disease is a testimony to what Nigerians can collectively achieve.
While calling on development partners, organised private sectors, civil society organisations and well-meaning individuals to buy into the strategic plan in line with the principle of 'three ones': one action framework, one national coordinating authority and one monitoring and evaluation system, he called for greater public awareness on the ailment.
World Health Organization (WHO) country representative to Nigeria,Rui Gama Vaz noted that the survey report has been validated by WHO and other international partners. He added this was necessary since the survey has come to reveal the actual burden of TB in the country, which is almost three times what was previously estimated.
Vaz described Nigeria as the third highest TB burden country in the world and the 1st in the Africa Region adding that owing to the current 16 per cent TB cases notification rate, the country's TB treatment gap has also become the highest, accounting 15 per cent of the global gap.
He noted that the survey also confirmed a worrisome situation with regard to Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
The Survey placed Nigeria as the 13th highest TB burden country globally and the second highest in the African Region: with estimated 3,700 cases per year, of which only up to 500 have ever put on treatment.
According to the report, too many Nigerians continue to fall ill with tuberculosis each year - an estimated 591,500 adults and children in 2014 - with many of them unable to access the services they need for a proper diagnosis and prompt treatment. As a result, many fall further into poverty as they search for care and become too sick to work, while approximately half may die if left untreated.
As a disease that primarily affects people in the most productive years of their lives, TB causes the loss of millions of productive work days every year, depriving families and the Nigerian economy as a whole of the fruits of their labour. Simply put, Nigeria cannot afford to ignore this threat to the health, productivity and security of her people.
This Plan, developed by stakeholders representing a wide range of interested parties including those affected by TB, lays out an ambitious agenda to work towards the goal of providing Nigerians with universal access to high-quality, patient-centred prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for TB, TB/HIV and drug-resistant TB by 2020.
Achieving this goal will require a long-term government commitment to funding and implementing the intensive efforts needed to bring TB under control in Nigeria.
Source: The Guardian