World TB Day: HIV, smoking main drivers of TB burden in Nigeria – FG

The federal government has identified under-nutrition, HIV, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use as the main drivers of the tuberculosis burden in Nigeria. Nigeria is ranked 1st in Africa and 6th globally in the 2020 WHO Global TB report among the 30 high TB burden countries. Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, made the disclosure during […]

The federal government has identified under-nutrition, HIV, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use as the main drivers of the tuberculosis burden in Nigeria.

Nigeria is ranked 1st in Africa and 6th globally in the 2020 WHO Global TB report among the 30 high TB burden countries.

Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, made the disclosure during a news briefing organized by the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme in collaboration with Stop TB Partnership Nigeria and other partners to commemorate this year’s World TB Day.

Highlights of the event was the launch of the Unified TB campaign and the ACSM guideline.

He said, “The main drivers of the TB burden in Nigeria are under-nutrition, HIV, diabetes, smoking and alcohol use, with over 400,000 estimated TB cases in 2019. The working age group of Nigerians, 15 – 44 years, is most affected by TB morbidity and mortality, with over 150,000 estimated TB deaths in 2019.”

Represented by the Minister of State for Health, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, the minister said tackling TB is highly prioritised in Nigeria, adding that one of the significant achievements in the TB response is in TB-HIV collaboration.

He said that consistently, about 94% TB patients are tested for HIV, and that TB-HIV co-infected patients on Cotrimoxazole Preventive Therapy (CPT) and Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) has remained above 80% and 70% respectively in the last five years.

He said that consistent with the 2019 National HIV prevalence of 1.4% from the Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), the proportion of TB patients co-infected with HIV has dropped from 18% in 2014 to 11% in 2019.

The minister said the efforts have led to steady increase in the country’s annual TB case notification in the last four years with the country recording the highest-ever TB case notification of 120,266 TB cases in 2019.

While saying that the present administration is committed to working with partners to mobilise the needed resources for TB eradication in Nigeria , he said the federal government has stepped up TB response in line with the commitment made by President Muhammadu Buhari to End TB, at the first-ever United Nations High-level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB in September, 2018.

“Following that commitment, we are implementing a plan that translates the commitments into action, and we were able to achieve 73% of our UNHLM TB case finding target for 2019,” he said.

WHO Nigeria Country Representative, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said low TB case detection remains a major challenge in the TB control efforts in Nigeria with the country only detecting 27% of the estimated incident TB cases.