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Sanwo-Olu seeks for robust action to end TB in Nigeria 

By Nkechi Onyedika-Ugoeze, Abuja
10 April 2022   |   4:01 am
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has called for a robust plan to tackle the high burden of Tuberculosis in the country and end the epidemic by 2030.

Laments High Epidemic Burden In Lagos
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has called for a robust plan to tackle the high burden of Tuberculosis in the country and end the epidemic by 2030. 

He lamented that Lagos is the epic center of TB in the country, accounting for 11 per cent of the burden in the country. 

Speaking during a virtual event, organised by the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, in partnership with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Sanwo-Olu who described as worrisome the high TB infection and burden in the country, stated that TB is a critical public health burden in Nigeria, particularly Lagos, due to its densely populated nature. 

The Governor lamented that from the World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics, about 1.5 million people every year die globally as a result of Tuberculosis, adding that Nigeria has the sixth highest TB death burden in the world accounting for about 8. 7 per cent of the global TB deaths in 2019. 

He said TB is a critical health burden in Lagos State, an airborne infection that can spread from person to person, adding that TB has a huge negative effect on the population and the economy. 

The governor stated that the biggest challenge is in finding new cases considering that TB has the same symptoms with other similar diseases, adding that Nigeria has 3,000 missing cases of TB every year.

“I am more concerned because 11 per cent of the total national burden of TB is in Lagos. We have the higher burden of not being able to detect the disease as a fast-growing population. Unfortunately, we may still be carrying that burden as the epicentre for a while because of our population. Lagos has the largest population density in Africa. 

“What statistics have shown us in Lagos is that since 2015, we have been increasing our ability and capacity to detect a lot more cases yearly. For me, this shows that there are some positive trends. This shows that there are a lot of good things we are doing but we need to do it quicker and faster.”

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, Mr. Mayowa Joel, said about 18 people die of TB every hour in Nigeria, while about 4,100 people lose their lives to TB in Nigeria every year in the country. 

According to him, the biggest challenge to ending TB in the country is low funding and in 2020, out of the fund needed to end TB in Nigeria, only 31 per cent was available. 

He said: “Out of the 31 per cent, seven per cent were from domestic resources and 24 per cent from doughnuts. This gives a gap of 69 per cent. We realised that the government cannot do it alone, which is why we are bringing together the private sector to be able to support the efforts of the government to end TB in Nigeria. It has been done before in polio, COVID-19 prevention and treatment, among others.”

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