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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
STOP TB Partnership Nigeria has expressed hope of improved Tuberculosis (TB) treatment in Nigeria if adequate funding would be provided for those responding to the disease.
TB is among the top priority diseases in Nigeria, as the country is one of 10 high burden countries for TB, TB/HIV and multi-drug resistant (MDR)-TB in 2021’ as stated in the global TB report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Nigeria has an estimated 440,000 TB cases, of which only 117,320 were diagnosed and notified.
STOP TB Partnership confirmed that there’s incremental progress in the quality of TB treatment and care over the years as evidenced by the 87 per cent treatment success rate and 91 per cent uptake of antiretroviral therapy (ART) among HIV-positive TB patients.
Executive Director, KNCV TB Foundation, Nigeria, Dr Bethrand Odume, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja, on Wednesday, to announce their forthcoming National TB conference, maintained that poor funding has remained a major challenge in the fight against TB.
‘Funding constraint has remained the key challenge towards combatting TB disease in Nigeria. Over the past five years, it has been driven largely by external funding sources. There’s an urgent need to create an avenue to foster access to research, technologies, innovations and build collaborations/partnerships for TB control in Nigeria,’ he said.
‘In 2020, it was estimated that the implementation of the National Strategic Plan (NSP), for tuberculosis, required about $384 million. But only 30 per cent was available to all the implementers of TB control activities in Nigeria (7% domestic and 23% donor funds), with a 70 per cent funding gap.
‘However, despite the improved statistics of TB treatment as contained in the recent data, the overall TB treatment coverage remains low at 27 per cent in 2021, and case notifications have marginally increased in the past five years.
‘This situation translates to about 75 per cent of TB patients being missed annually. Of equally great concern is the increasing gap in access to TB services to the pediatric population and other vulnerable groups.’
Odume confirmed that TB patients are usually more vulnerable to other infections including being at a higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19 due to pre-existing lung damage.
He explained that the forthcoming TB conference will provide an opportunity for the stakeholders involved in TB response in Nigeria to brainstorm on ways to sustain funding for TB response in Nigeria when foreign donors might have exited.
He added that the 2021 conference will also provide a platform for all stakeholders to deliberate on the magnitude and dimensions of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other diseases on TB control in Nigeria, and also create an opportunity to learn lessons from experiences within and other countries, and come up with strategies to address TB control during the current and future pandemics.
Odume also added that the conference will bring together all stakeholders within and outside Nigeria working to end TB in the country and provide an opportunity to deliberate on topical issues as regards TB control, foster and harness inter-sectoral and institutional collaboration for TB control in Nigeria.
