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NASS Pledges Renewed Support For Tuberculosis Eradication In Nigeria

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Aminat Isah, Abuja

The National Assembly has reaffairmed its support towards universal health coverage for all a sundry, especially in the areas of communicable disease.

Chairman House Committee on tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria, Abubakar Sarki Dajiru, gave the pledge at the pre –world TB Day 2020 conference in Abuja today, saying that each member of the House of Representatives will purchase a tuberculosis-testing machine for their constituency, as a way of reducing the menace of the disease.

With the 2020 World tuberculosis day themed: “ it’s time to end TB in Nigeria. Check that cough, time no dey. Dahiru explained that members were passionate about putting an end to the menace of tuberculosis in Nigeria, hence there pledge to provide testing kits as part of their contribution to their various constituencies, adding that he would sponsor a debate on tuberculosis on the floor of the house in the coming week.

“In the coming week, you will see debate on tuberculosis because of the serious attachment we have for the health sector. And after this debate, I assure you that each member will buy the tuberculosis testing machines”

Putting blames on the poor budgetary allocation and release for the health sector, the chairman noted that the leadership of the house of representative is working assiduously to ensure adequate release of funds for the health sector.

The KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Country Director, and Chairman, planning committee, World Tuberculosis Day 2020, Dr. Berthrand Odume earlier in his remarks lamented that TB has remained the world’s deadliest infectious killer disease, with Nigeria being one of the worst hit countries globally with 18 TB deaths per hour.

” Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of the disease globally. According to the 2018 Global TB Report, Nigeria is among the 30 high burden countries for TB/HIV and MDR-TB. It ranked sixth among the 30 high TB burden countries and first in Africa.

‘’Also, forty-nine (49) Nigerians develop active TB, six (6) of which are children, every hour. One of the major challenges of TB response in Nigeria is attributed to low TB case findings in both adult and children.

‘’This is as a result of low TB treatment coverage and poor knowledge about TB. Each day, nearly 4500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 58 million lives since the year 2000 and reduced the TB

“In 2018, about 1.4 million people globally died of TB-related causes including over 205,000 children. In addition, over 95% of TB deaths occurs in low and middle-income countries especially Africa.

He therefore called for concerted efforts by President Muhammadu Buhari and other policy makers to ensure the menace of TB epidemic in Nigeria is forestalled.

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