Funding is being sought by WHO and others to combat tuberculosis in Nigeria

In order to fulfill Nigeria’s 2030 target of eliminating tuberculosis, the World Health Organization, KNCV Nigeria, and other experts urged governments at all levels to boost funding in the illness on Tuesday.

Ahead of the World Tuberculosis Day in 2024, they made the announcement during a press conference in Abuja.

They pointed out that efforts to combat the deadly disease are seriously threatened by the continually low awareness levels, especially in rural regions.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the organism that causes tuberculosis, is a disease that frequently affects the lungs. It ranks in the top 10 infectious diseases that kill people globally and is the leading infectious killer disease in the world.

It travels through the air from person to person.

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is ranked sixth out of 30 countries in the world with the largest disease burden.

In terms of the quantity of instances that remain undiagnosed, Nigeria tops all of Africa.

Every year on March 24, the world observes World Tuberculosis Day to raise awareness of the disease’s effects.

Nigeria’s motto is “No gree for TB, check am o,” while the 2024 World Tube Blogging Day subject is “Yes, we can end TB.”

During the ceremony, Dr. Amos Omoniyi, a WHO official, stated that millions of deaths are reported from tuberculosis (TB) every year, making it a killer disease worldwide.

According to Omoniyi, 479,000 cases (19%) of the estimated 2.4 million cases of tuberculosis that were reported in Africa in 2022 came from Nigeria.

He added that 97,900 (or 23%) of the 424,000 TB-related deaths that had place in Africa that year happened in Nigeria.

Despite being a treatable illness, he claims that one person in Nigeria passes away from TB every five minutes.

“Even though tuberculosis is a treatable illness, people still die from it every day, which is very sad and painful,” he stated.

Omoniyi pointed out that Nigeria still has a 70% funding gap for tuberculosis (TB) even after taking into consideration the high disease load.

The speaker declared, “If the government at all levels can invest more into tackling TB, this killer-disease is curable, preventable, and can be eradicated.”

Additionally, the topic communicates the urgent need to unite and intensify the battle against tuberculosis in order to fulfill commitments to end the illness by 2030, according to Dr. Bethrand Odume, Executive Director of the KNCV TB Foundation Nigeria.

According to Odume, it is a continuation of the World TB Day theme from the previous year, which raises awareness of TB and our ability as a group to meet the objectives of the UN High-Level Meeting on TB Political Declaration in 2023, setting the stage for the global eradication of TB by 2030.

It offers optimism and expands on the excellent effort carried out in 2023 by numerous TB High Burden Countries and TB Champions worldwide, who are still making tremendous progress toward recovering from the COVID-19 epidemic by expanding access to TB treatment and prevention,” he said.

According to him, the topic also centers on the growing involvement of TB patients, communities, and civil society leaders who are spearheading the effort to eradicate the illness.

According to him, it also shows advancements in research and development, including numerous novel instruments for diagnosing tuberculosis, streamlined, more effective treatment plans, preventive measures, and multiple vaccines undergoing phase three clinical trials.

Odume stated that there has never been a better moment to step up efforts to eradicate tuberculosis.

He went on, “We all need to sustain the progress we have made in finding missing TB cases by scaling up important, tried-and-true strategies and continuing advocacy efforts to improve funding from the public and private sectors.”

According to him, as part of the TB Local Organization Network initiative funded by USAID, KNCV is collaborating with the state TB programs in the 14 states it supports as well as the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy, and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme to enhance TB case detection in Nigeria.