By Asma’u Ahmad
The Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, has urged world leaders to make concerted effort to address the spread of Tuberculosis across the globe.
Aisha Buhari made the call in an inaugural speech which she delivered on the margins of the 71st United Nations General Assembly currently underway in New York City, United State of America.
A statement issued by the Director of Media to the Wife of the President, Zakari Yau Nadabo, in Abuja stated that the president’s wife made the call under the auspices of ‘Stop TB Partnership,’ a world renowned Tuberculosis (TB) advocacy group for the eradication of the deadly disease of which Aisha Buhari championed same cause in Nigeria.
She enjoined Heads of State around the world to include Tuberculosis as part of the challenges confronting the global community as they come together this week to discuss the world’s most pressing political and development challenges.
The president’s wife expressed happiness that the disease, through the intervention of the Stop TB Partnership, was beginning to receive more deserving label.
She added that “tuberculosis is no longer viewed as inescapable bacteria that must be controlled, but a global emergency that demands political response at the highest levels.”
She said that the world was too interconnected to treat a deadly infectious disease such as TB in isolation or as a regional disease.
“The rise of infectious disease like TB poses challenges far beyond the health sector as they can bring down entire economies, spread fear and panic, and impact the very core of society, as shown by the recent Ebola epidemic,” Aisha Buhari said.
Mrs Buhari commended the leadership of Stop TB Partnership, which brought together governments, parliamentarians, development partners, private sector, and civil society organisations to unite against the
disease.
She supported the recent call by a South African minister to convene a UN High-Level meeting on TB in September 2017 and pledged to mobilise the wives of governors in Nigeria to support and advance the cause to ending TB.
