By Asma’u Ahmad
The Federal Government has established over 6,000 health centres and 135,000 facilities to contain tuberculosis in the country. Head of monitoring and evaluation, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTLCP), Mr. Joseph Kuye said.
The NTLCP official disclosed this at a stakeholders meeting on Thursday in Abuja. He said that the centres were to strategise on ways of curbing tuberculosis in Nigeria. Mr. Kuye says tuberculosis is caused by bacteria that often affect the lungs, noting that the disease is curable if detected early.
According to him, researches show that tuberculosis is an airborne disease and spreads easily from person to another. He said Nigeria is among the highest burden countries in Africa and in the world.
“However, health authorities are putting more efforts to partner with stakeholders to fund and get new strategies to curb the disease in Nigeria, believing that the spread is due to lack of funds,” he stressed.
Associate Director for Global Fund Programme, Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), Mrs. Aderonke Agbaje said that another dangerous stage of Tuberculosis called TB-MDR had been discovered, and stressed the need for constant check.
She said one third of the world’s population has latent TB, which means that people have been infected by the bacteria but are not ill and cannot transmit the disease.
“The menace of tuberculosis has been associated with poverty, humanitarian crisis and overcrowded environment and is the leading killer of people with HIV in the world,” she said.
Mrs. Agbaje advised any person coughing consistently for two weeks to seek medical help, saying “TB test and treatment are free in all government hospitals.”
