15m Nigerians live with asthma

Talk about lung diseases, and tuberculosis and asthma come to mind. An estimated 15 million Nigerians live with asthma alone, and many are dying, according to Initiative for Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IPCTLD). The nongovernment organisation joined worldwide campaign against TB, lung diseases and non communicable diseases this week but its […]

Talk about lung diseases, and tuberculosis and asthma come to mind.

An estimated 15 million Nigerians live with asthma alone, and many are dying, according to Initiative for Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IPCTLD).

The nongovernment organisation joined worldwide campaign against TB, lung diseases and non communicable diseases this week but its primary focus is Nigeria.

“Our goal is to control communicable and noncommunicable diseases in Nigeria,” said Chijioke Osakwe, founder of IPCTLD, which was inaugurated this week.

“TB is our competency area but we are looking beyond that to other emerging diseases, communicable and noncommunicable. Especially, hypertension, diabetes and even asthma. Many people are dying from asthma. Fifteen million people are living with asthma,” said Osakwe.

“Half of our members are researchers published in peer reviewed journals. So research is our main focus, apart from community mobilisation.”