As Nigeria ranks first in Africa, sixth in the world and 157,000 people die yearly from tuberculosis, governors are gearing up to stage fight against the scourge.
This is coming as the Governors’ Forum, NGF, joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day.
A statement by the Chairman of the Forum, Fayemi Kayode made available to ASHENEWS on Wednesday, noted that the advent of COVID-19 pandemic and its control measures in 2020, further impacted on the health system, including TB services, which also set back the progress made in tuberculosis.
He stated that the commemoration day “provides the opportunity for the entire world to intensify public awareness about the devasting health, social and economic impact of tuberculosis, as well as renew our commitment to accelerate efforts at the national, state, local government and community levels to eradicate TB in Nigeria.
“Though it is preventable and curable, it has remained the deadliest infectious disease globally. Currently, Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of TB, ranking first in Africa and sixth globally. It is estimated that about 18 Nigerians die of TB everyday which translates to 432 people monthly and 157,000 yearly.
“Over the last decade, government and partners have implemented various interventions to ensure that people with TB are found and treated.
“However, the advent of COVID-19 pandemic and its control measures in 2020 further impacted on the health system including TB services, setting back progress made.
“Despite this setback, the government in partnership with other stakeholders are working to address these challenges by: strengthening the capacity of State TB program to be more effective in its role; support revitalization and upgrading of health facilities to provide appropriate TB services especially diagnosis; mobilize more domestic resources for TB program and activities in the State and to establish a multi-stakeholder State Stop TB Partnerships,” Fayemi stated.
He stressed governors’ commitment to work with stakeholders to end tuberculosis in respective states as well as called on the federal government to support states in achieving the targets and commitments made at the United Nations High-level Meeting on Tuberculosis held in 2018.
“Therefore, in accordance with the theme of this year’s World TB Day – “The Clock is Ticking”, we reaffirm our commitment to work with other stakeholders to end TB in our respective states. We also call on the Federal government to provide necessary support to the states to be able to domesticate and achieve the targets and commitments made at the United Nations High-level Meeting on Tuberculosis held in 2018. These targets and commitments expect that by 2022, we will be back on track in our efforts to ensure we are able to end TB by 2030.”
