.5m TB cases undetected yearly

Public health experts have raised concern that up to half a million cases of tuberculosis go undetected and untreated each year in Nigeria, raising fears of further spread of the disease. Country director of the Royal Dutch TB Foundation (KNCV), Dr Mustapha Gidado, said there are free drugs at facilities provided by the federal ministry […]

Public health experts have raised concern that up to half a million cases of tuberculosis go undetected and untreated each year in Nigeria, raising fears of further spread of the disease.
Country director of the Royal Dutch TB Foundation (KNCV), Dr Mustapha Gidado, said there are free drugs at facilities provided by the federal ministry of health under support of partners but we are not getting good utilisation of those facilities, and therefore Nigeria is not diagnosing and not detecting enough number of TB patients.
A compilation of global data by the World Health Organisation found only 15%-or about 100,000-of TB cases in Nigeria are detected yearly, even though an estimated 600,000 people are thought to be infected yearly.
Dr Kuye Joseph of monitoring and evaluation unit at The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), which coordinates efforts of a handful of partners working to combat TB across Nigeria, said ignorance was a major problem as many people don’t access TB services, which are free.