TODAY’S VIEWPOINT IS ON REDUCING TB PREVALENCE RATE BY 2025. IT IS WRITTEN BY HEAD OF EDITORIAL UNIT, YETUNDE OKE
Tuberculosis, TB is a major public health problem in Nigeria and globally.
According to the 2023 World Health Organisation Global TB report, Nigeria has the highest burden of TB in Africa and the 6th highest burden globally, with an estimated 479,000 persons contracting the disease in 2022.
This represents an average of one person developing tb every minute in the country.
Under nutrition and HIV remain the topmost drivers of the TB burden in Nigeria.
According to the W.H.O Global TB report, 36% were women, 57% were men, while 7% were children.
Though the case detection for TB is low in Nigeria, it is one of the few countries which have shown an increase in overall TB notification.
TB disease is often more severe in children less than 15 years, with higher mortality amongst those less than 5 years.
The notification of children with active disease and non-active TB has remained abysmally low, due to low TB case findings.
Meanwhile, Nigeria has taken some significant steps towards meeting the end tb targets.
The country is aiming at reducing the TB prevalence rate by 50 percent and TB mortality by 75 percent by 2025.
In meeting these targets by 2025, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme and other stakeholders decided to set aside a week for yearly TB National Testing across Nigeria.
This year’s TB testing week which started on 27th of May, ended on 2nd of June, with a focus on missing cases of TB in children.
In Oyo state, considerably efforts were made to create awareness about the importance of TB testing, treatment and prevention during the testing week.
At Alwajud Agbomojo Care Foundation, a testing center at Egbeda area of Ibadan, the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Supervisor, Egbeda Local Government Area of Oyo state, Mrs Oluwatoyin Shafara, during the TB testing, said children aged 0 to 14 years suspected to have symptoms of TB were treated free of charge.
A representative of USAID, Mr Femi Ajayi who spoke on behalf of other partners in support of the fight against TB, including Breakthrough Action Nigeria, (BA-N) and Institute of Human Virology (IHVN) said the country needs to be committed in checking TB cases in children.
At Sabo community, Mokola, Ibadan, TB campaigners stakeholders sensitized members of the public against stigmatisation of children and adults with TB, emphasising that the disease is preventable and curable.
According to chairman, Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria, (IHVN) Oyo state, Mr Samuel Akingbesote, Nigeria has not be at par with the expectation of TB case findings, especially in children aged 0 to 14 years, due to stigmatisation.
Similarly, director, strategic information, institute of human virology Nigeria under TB project in southwest, Mr Michael Pedro, pointed out data is important in TB testing, as it enables contact tracing which helps to curtail the spread of TB.
In her contributions, supervisor, tuberculosis and leprosy of Ibadan north local government area of Oyo state, Iwo Road, Mrs Kehinde Bilau, stressed the need parents to cooperate with state governments on preventive measures.
These measures include encouraging their children to always cover their mouths while coughing, avoid spitting indiscrimately and adhere strictly to personal hygiene.
Speaking on behalf of the state government, the Childhood TB Focal Person for Oyo state, Mrs Titilayo Adebola hinted that parents and teachers, who are the closest people to children, could easily identify signs and symptoms of TB, such as persistent cough, weight loss, loss of appetite, tiredness and night sweat.
Mrs Adebola who said this during the exercise at Islamic mission primary school, Odo-iye, Yemetu, Ibadan, noted that if there are suspected or confirmed tb cases in adults, all children around such adults must be brought in for testing.
She insisted that tb testing and treatment are free of charge in all primary health care centres across the state.
Furthermore, in Nigeria, tb prevalence survey found that approximately 29% of cases were being treated in the private sector.
Therefore, engagement of private providers is critical.
In July 2020, the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Program along with, the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria,(IHVN) launched a mobile application, the mobile application for tuberculosis screening (MATS) for screening and notifying TB cases by private health care providers in order to ensure treatment of more cases in the country.
The Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme noted that the use of the mobile application has shown significant progress in TB screening efficiency and linkage between the facility and community-based units.
In conclusion, as TB testing week across the country has ended, stakeholders said low case detection and lack of adequate knowledge about TB due to low awareness creation are two major challenges facing TB response in Nigeria.
The stakeholders therefore called on Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, to use the data from this year’s and previous years TB testing to mobilise resources in fighting the disease.
They further called for more tb awareness programmes among families and communities.
They equally advocated integration of TB services into routine children’s health services, such as nutrition and immunization programmes and more allocation to the fight against TB.
