Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has raised the alarm over the stock-out of Tuberculosis (TB) drugs and other essential commodities across the country.

It also lamented the continued failure of the government to adequately finance TB programmes and fulfil its counterpart funding commitments to the national TB response.

The association called on the Federal government to immediately declare the TB commodity stock-out situation a public health priority and emergency requiring urgent intervention.

It also urged the Federal Executive Council to approve and ensure the funds are released for immediate procurement because People Living with HIV affected by advanced HIV diseases are dying due to the government’s inaction.

Briefing journalists yesterday in Abuja, the National Coordinator of NEPWHA, Abdulkadir Ibrahim, observed that Nigeria had continued to carry one of the highest burdens of TB globally, the current shortage of TB medicines, diagnostics, and related commodities represents a major public health emergency that threatened the lives of thousands of Nigerians, particularly people living with HIV (PLHIV), among whom TB remained the leading cause of death.

Ibrahim pointed out that treatment interruptions increased the risk of severe illness, drug resistance, preventable deaths, and continued transmission of TB within vulnerable populations.

Also speaking, the Senior Advocacy and Marketing Manager at AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), Mr Steve Aborishade, stated that TB was a life-threatening disease, adding that the country might begin to experience high cases of TB drug resistance as a result of the present stockout.