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FG decries high NTDs’ burden as Lagos considers assessment

By Chukwuma Muanya (Lagos) and Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze (Abuja)
31 January 2023   |   3:44 am
Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, yesterday, lamented Nigeria’s 25 per cent statistics of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Africa. According to him, while 122 million Nigerians are affected by Lymphatic Filariasis, 33 million have Onchocerciasis, 20.8 million with Schistosomiasis, 29.4 Transmitted Helminths, 5.3Trachoma and 6.5 million people affected by Human African Trypanosomiasis. He said…

Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, yesterday, lamented Nigeria’s 25 per cent statistics of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Africa.

According to him, while 122 million Nigerians are affected by Lymphatic Filariasis, 33 million have Onchocerciasis, 20.8 million with Schistosomiasis, 29.4 Transmitted Helminths, 5.3Trachoma and 6.5 million people affected by Human African Trypanosomiasis.

He said addressing social determinants of health like Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) inadequacies is essential for NTDs’ control and elimination.

Addressing the media to commemorate the 2023 World NTD Day, yesterday, in Abuja, Ehanire noted that NTDs are of public health concern, as they impact negatively on socio-economic development and affect an estimated one billion people worldwide, mostly low-income tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

He stressed the need to focus on millions of people with little or no access to prevention, treatment and care in the roll out of the 10-year NTD roadmap for 2021-2030 by World Health Organisation (WHO), which proposed ambitious targets and innovative approaches to tackle the ailments and provide blueprint and direction for global elimination.

The minister said: “The significance of World NTD Day is to renew global and national awareness of the magnitude of NTDs and also present opportunities to highlight progress made, challenges met, policy direction and advocate support for prevention, control and elimination efforts. Nigeria is particularly interested in NTDs because they are a group of communicable and non-communicable diseases occurring mostly in isolated areas of developing countries with poor sanitation and nutritional status, unsafe water supply, substandard living conditions and low level of education. Tough sufferers may be many, the diseases are still ‘neglected’ because they are almost absent from the global health agenda and are associated with stigma and social exclusion. Neglecting the population also helps perpetuate the cycle of poverty and limited access to professional opportunities.”

Similarly, WHO has confirmed that the continued plaguing of poorest members of communities by NTDs, especially in areas where water safety, sanitation and access to healthcare are inadequate.

According to the organisation, 16 nations account for 80 per cent of global NTDs’ burden, while 179 countries and territories reported at least an in incident in 2021.

In a new document titled: “Global report on NTDs 2023,” WHO said about 1.65 billion people were estimated to require treatment for at least one the ailments globally.

WHO’s Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, observed that despite progress made, there was still a lot of work to be done.

The report, however, indicated that the number of people requiring interventions fell by 80 million between 2020 and 2021, while eight nations were certified NTD-free last year.

BACK home, the Lagos government is to assess prevalence of NTDs in all of the state’s 20 councils as part of ongoing efforts to treat and eliminate the diseases.

Lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, is an NTD. Onchocerciasis or river blindness is a parasitic disease caused by the filarial worm, Onchocerca volvulus.

Other NTDs include: Ascariasis, Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dracunculiasis, hookworm infection, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma and trichuriasis.

Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who made the disclosure yesterday after an awareness walk, organised by the Ministry of Health and a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Mission to Save the Helpless (MITOSATH), to mark this year’s NTD Day, explained that the assessment, which commences next month, would result in targeted treatment of NTDs where necessary in line with WHO’s elimination roadmap.

Harping on the global theme, “Act Now, Act Together, Invest in Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases,” restated that Lagos would assess prevalence of other NTDs like Lymphatic filariasis and Onchocerciasis, which is commencing early next month in 14 councils for Onchocerciasis and six councils for Lymphatic filariasis.

Represented by the Director Epidemiology, Biosecurity and Global Health, Dr. Ismail Abdus-Salam, the commissioner said the global event is celebrated every January 30 because of impact of NTDs and growing concern of their burden of risk on national and global economies over the decades.

His words: “NTDs are a group of conditions that affects more than a billion people, who mostly live in marginalised, rural, poor urban areas and conflict zones. Although they are preventable and treatable, these diseases and their intricate interrelationships with poverty and ecological systems continue to cause devastating health, social and economic consequences.

“True to the name, NTDs seldom receive the attention they warrant. To end this neglect, the 74th World Health Assembly declared January 30 as World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day.”

On intervention and efforts of the state government to control and eliminate NTDs, Abayomi said through cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Health and MITOSATH, Lagos successfully completed treatment to prevent Schistosomiasis in nine endemic councils, adding that over 350,000 school-age children (SAC) got treatment for the disease.

Executive Director of MITOSATH, Dr. Francesca Olamiju, said the body was collaborating with Lagos and other relevant governmental and non-governmental agencies to control and eliminate NTDs.

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