Stakeholders and partners in the health sector have called for improved funding for TB control in Nigeria.
According to them, there is a 69% gap in the funding required for tuberculosis control in the country.
They made the call yesterday in Abuja during a media briefing ahead of this year’s World TB Day, organized by Stop TB Partnership and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) of the Federal Ministry of Health.
Executive Director, KNCV Nigeria, and Chair 2023 National Word TB Day Planning Committee, Dr Odume Bethrand, said funding for TB had remained a key challenge to support program activities towards closing the TB treatment coverage gap which stands at 66%as at the end of 2021.
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Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, National Coordinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, said Nigeria had the highest TB burden in Africa and ranked 6th in the TB burden in the world.
He said there was still poor awareness about TB in Nigeria, adding that the 40 percent missing TB cases were till causing havoc in the country.
Acting Board Chair, Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Dr Queen Ogbuji, said in line with this year’s theme of the World TB Day, ‘Yes! We can end TB’, Nigeria could end TB if everyone got involved.
She said out of the 31 percent of TB funding available for TB control in Nigeria, 24 percent was from donors.
Dr Queen Ogbuji said at the end of 2022, the national TB programme was able to notify 285, 000 missing cases representing 60 percent performance for TB notification.
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