'Tuberculosis Infection Among Children on Increase', Expert Raises Strong Alarm, Advises FG
- The Nigerian Government has been asked to pay more attention to the spread of Tuberculosis among children in the country
- The call was made by the executive director of the Stop TB Partnership Geneva, Lucica Ditiu on Wednesday, August 24
- According to Ditiu, there is a need to close the funding gap in tuberculosis prevention, treatment and management processes
The increase in the infection of children with Tuberculosis has posed great concerns for experts in the health field.
The executive director of the Stop TB Partnership Geneva, Lucica Ditiu on Wednesday, August 24, expressed worry that childhood TB was on the increase in Nigeria.
Speaking at a meeting with the minister of health, Osagie Ehanire, during the high-Level Mission on Domestic Resource Mobilization to end TB in Nigeria, Ditiu identified some of the challenges mitigating the fight against Tuberculosis in Nigeria.
Source: UGC
The executive director there was a need for Nigeria to close the huge gap in the funding for tuberculosis prevention, treatment and management processes.
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According to Ditiu, this can be achieved through priority funding by state governments.
Her words:
“The increase of DR-TB infection is becoming a community transmission issue, Childhood TB on the increase, there is need to have more TB representatives on the CCM.
‘‘And there is a need for Nigeria to have an online live data platform where the progress can be centrally monitored."
Also commending the Nigerian government for the successes secured in the fight against Tb in the past two years, Ditiu who promised needed commitment in the support of the Stop TB Partnership, shared the experience from other countries.
In her remarks, the acting board chair of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Queen Ogbuji expressed optimism that changing the narrative of financial funding would require commitment and a joint effort by parliamentarians, the country's ministry of finance and health.
She further urged the Nigerian government to make office accommodation for the TB team a priority so that the funding from the Global Fund would be reserved exclusively for programmatic use.
Responding, Nigeria's minister of health admitted that efforts in fighting TB to a stop need more support.
He promised to collaborate with the ministry of finance, the National Assembly and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to ensure an expansion of generating funding for fight against TB.
He said:
”We will explore all avenues to see how more resources can be mobilized for the fight against TB."
Ehanire also commended Stop TB Partnership team while announcing that the ministry of health had started a partnership with the private sector to improve TB testing in the country.
FG begins massive screening in FCT, 36 states to find 300,000 missing tuberculosis cases among residents
The Federal Government had embarked on a drive to wipe Tuberculosis disease away from the country.
The effort by the Nigerian government follows the need to detect about 300,000 Tuberculosis cases which are not accounted for.
The drive to wipe the disease from the country started with a massive screening exercise in the Gishiri community of the Federal Capital Territory.
'It's better imagined than experienced', TB survivor calls for improved post-treatment care
There is a need for survivors of Tuberculosis in the country to be adequately taken care of, an advocate had said.
Adebola Adams who also survived the disease called for a state of emergency to be declared on all forms of TB management in Nigeria.
According to Adams, survivors of TB need good nutrition, and psycho-social care among many others to reintegrate into the system.
Source: Legit.ng
