Tuberculosis: Nigeria Now Ranks First In Africa
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole on Monday disclosed that Nigeria presently ranks number one in Africa as the country with the highest tuberculosis rate, saying that working together can help reduce these cases considerably.
The minister expressed worry over the precarious position, going by the fact that the country currently sits in the fourth position among the countries with high tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of TB laboratory equipment and launching of the standard procedure laboratory manual sponsored by Agbami Co-venturers in the Agbami field, held at Southwest TB referral laboratory, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the minister stated that the fight against the spread of tuberculosis in the country should be collective.
Adewole commended the sponsor of the project, Star Deepwater Petroleum Limited for recognizing the profitability of investment in the health sector, noting that countries with improved social economy have adequate investment in health.
The N32million equipment also has an alternative power supply comprising of a new power generating set and inverters.
“Many countries that have recorded improvement in the social economic indicators have also invested in health adequately.
“If you look at Malaysia, Thailand, many of them, you will see an improvement in their health indicators and reduction in mortality and referral mortality before they record improvement in their social economic indicators.
“This is another reason why investment in health is a win-win, and that is why keying into TB is a must for all of us. TB remains an epidemic and this morning, we were at the TB hospital in Ibadan, the message clearly is for all of us to work together to really put the tag on TB that this is a disease that is preventable.
“We can diagnose it easily because it is treatable and curable. Nigeria is one of the top six countries in the world with high TB rate. We are number one in Africa, in fact we are number four in the world, I think second to Indonesia, China and Russia. So, we are there in a black position. We must work together to change the narrative about TB. Working together will enable us to make the correct diagnosis.
“About 80 percent of our TB cases remain undiagnosed. We are only able to diagnose roughly one out of six, in order words, there are five out of six cases out there undiagnosed and they represent huge threat to our own health.
“Because when you stay with somebody who has TB and you don’t know, you can easily acquire it. So we need to really make a lot of noise, put a lot of emphasis, educate the public about the reality of TB and working together, we can diagnose and treat TB easily since it is curable. Additionally, the treatment is free, so you don’t even have to pay,” he said.
The minister however advised people to avoid overcrowding, avoid contaminated food and get adequate exposure to fresh air to avoid contacting TB, assuring that the equipment would help the Federal Government to accelerate measures to curb the spread of TB cases in the country.
“When there is a case of cough lasting for more than two weeks, anybody with symptoms of fever, sudden weight loss, producing blood stained sputum is a suspected case of TB and it should be reported as soon as possible. TB treatment is free,” he said.
“We believe in the principle of doing the right things the right way using the right tools. To effectively adhere to this principle requires a good grasp of procedures. It is for this reason that we sponsored the production of the National Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Tuberculosis Laboratory Diagnosis and the National Guidelines on Biosafety for Tuberculosis Laboratories,” he said.
