Nigeria may report 200,000 Tuberculosis cases by end of 2021 – Minister

Nigeria could be recording up to 200,000 Tuberculosis (TB) cases by the end of 2021, the Minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, has said.

Mr. Ehanire said this at the ongoing 2021 national tuberculosis conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

He said nine months into 2021, Nigeria has already surpassed the number of TB cases notified in 2020 by seven per cent.

“Nine months into this year 2021, Nigeria has already surpassed the total number of TB cases notified in all of 2020 by about 7 per cent and for the first time, Nigeria could be notifying up to 200,000 TB cases by the end of 2021.

“I like to commend all who are making this happen, including our partners WHO, Global Fund, USAID and other USG agencies and their partners, KNCV, Stop TB partnership, the TB network, community based organisations, and health workers who are the foot soldiers, for their hard work in the fight to end TB in Nigeria,” he said.

TB notification is the process of reporting diagnosed TB cases to relevant health authorities, which in turn report them

to the World Health Organisation (WHO) through National TB Programmes (NTPs) or their equivalent.

TB conference

The National TB conference is organised by the Stop TB partnership in Nigeria and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP).

The theme of the conference is “Sustaining a resilient TB response in Nigeria; Addressing the impact of COVID-19 and other diseases”.

The Acting Board Chairman, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Ayodele Awe, said the conference aims to galvanise action towards ending TB in Nigeria and across the world.

He said participants at the three day conference would deliberate on the way forward for TB elimination.

TB menace & COVID-19

Mr Ehanire said TB is one of the oldest infectious diseases that the world including Nigeria has resolved to eliminate.

TB is a contagious disease that is caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that often affects the lungs. Nigeria remains one of the 30 countries globally with the highest burden of TB.

Although TB is one of the vaccine-preventable diseases which is also curable, statistics from the WHO shows that every year, around 245,000 Nigerians die from TB, and about 590,000 new cases occur (of these, around 140,000 are also HIV-positive).

Data released by ‘Stop TB Partnership’ in March shows that global treatment and diagnosis of TB cases witnessed a drastic decline in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has infected millions of people worldwide.

Mr Ehanire also noted that the advent of the pandemic impacted many aspects of human endeavor, including health services.

By Nike Adebowale

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