TB patients at risk as drug shortages threaten nationwide

From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar

Widespread stock-outs of anti-tuberculosis drugs are endangering patients and accelerating transmission across Nigeria, despite Federal Government assurances that $54 million has been approved to secure supplies.

Health workers and civil society groups raised the alarm at a journalists’ training event on drug-resistant TB coverage organised by the COMBAT DR-TB Project of the Civil Society for the Eradication of Tuberculosis in Nigeria, TB Network, in Abuja, recently.

Officers at the training said facilities nationwide have been without essential TB commodities for almost two months, with current stocks insufficient to last till December.

Most concerning is the absence of TB Preventive Therapy, TPT, given to contacts of TB patients and people living with HIV to prevent progression to active disease.

The Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, NEPWHAN, earlier this year at a briefing, called on the Federal Government to declare the stock-out a national public health emergency.

NEPWHAN’s first-quarter community-led monitoring covering 2,135 facilities across the 36 states and the FCT found that 64.2 per cent of facilities reported stock-outs of at least one essential TB commodity, while 58.2 per cent recorded shortages of GeneXpert cartridges.

The body said there were no confirmed government funds for 2026 TB interventions and the $54m counterpart funding commitment was yet to be released. Months later, health workers say no medicines have arrived on shelves.

TB Network National Coordinator, Olayide Akanni, said donors who historically procured TB drugs have asked the government to take ownership, with Global Fund funding for only one year in the next cycle, leaving two years to the government.

The Stop TB Partnership lists Nigeria among 10 countries with urgent needs, requiring $85.4m for 2025/2026. Nigeria has a 70 per cent funding gap, with only six per cent of the national TB budget from domestic sources.

While about N73.4bn was earmarked for TB drugs for 2026, advocates say no funds have been released.

Head of Training at the National Institute of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Dr Eunice Chitumu, said stock-outs prolong illness, increase deaths, force treatment interruption which breeds drug-resistant TB, and fuel community spread.

Nigeria is a TB endemic country, donor dependent in most health programmes, ranks first in Africa and sixth globally among high-burden TB and TB/HIV countries, with about 510,000 new cases annually, according to WHO.

With over 510,000 cases recorded yearly, an estimated 63,000 cases missed each year, and one missed case can infect at least 15 persons yearly.