‘156,000 Nigerians die of tuberculosis annually’

Over 156, 000 Nigerians die of tuberculosis annually, the acting board chair of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Dr Queen Ogbuji, has said.

According to her, this implies that 18 people die of tuberculosis-related disease every hour and 432 daily.

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She spoke in Abuja yesterday during the pre-world TB press conference organised in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Nigeria.

According to her, this implies that 18 people die of tuberculosis-related disease every hour and 432 daily.

She said the theme for the 2022 World TB Day, ‘Invest to End TB, Save Lives’, conveyed the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end it made by global leaders.

Ogbuji said in Nigeria, of the $373m needed for TB control in 2020, only 31 per cent was available to all the implementers of TB control activities comprising seven per cent domestic funding and 24 per cent donor funds.

She urged the federal, state and local governments as well as corporate sector and philanthropists to invest in TB and prevent people from dying from a preventable and curable disease.

National Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, stressed the need for concerted efforts towards addressing the 70 per cent funding gap for TB and expanding diagnostic coverage of the disease in the country.

Country Director, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Nigeria, Dr Bethrand Odume, said there was a 70 gap in TB case finding in Nigeria.