World TB Day: Zamfara Govt Expands Diagnosis, Treatment

The Zamfara state government, working with partners, has stepped up efforts to ensure universal health coverage of TB services, saying TB treatment centers have expanded to 442 centres, and diagnosis and treatment are free in the state.

During a celebration to mark World Tuberculosis Day at the Zamfara State Health Ministry conference hall in Gusau today, State Capital Health Commissioner Aliyu Abubakar MC, represented by Permanent Secretary Pharmacist Aliyu Maikiyo, said this year’s theme, TB Day 2023, is “Yes, we can end TB.”

“The Zamfara government and its partners have been able to expand their TB treatment centers from 244 to 442 by 2022, including all private healthcare facilities in the state”.

He said World TB Day aims to raise public awareness and education about TB and its impact around the world, as well as the efforts of governments, donors and partners to end the global TB epidemic.

“Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, caused by the bacterium that most commonly affects the lungs (Mycobacterium tuberculosis)”.

“Zamfara State TB and Leprosy Control Program shares successes in TB prevention and control with our partners and colleagues around the world and raises awareness of the challenges standing in the way of eliminating this devastating disease”.

“This year’s theme for 2023 is ‘Yes, We Can End TB’ and the slogan ‘Get Involved’ aims to inspire hope and encourage top leadership, increase investment, adopt new WHO recommendations faster, embrace innovation, accelerate action and multisectoral action and multisectoral collaboration to combat the TB epidemic”.

According to him, this year’s World TB Day is of critical importance, an opportunity to raise awareness and political commitment at the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB.

“World TB Day will focus on urging countries to make progress in the run-up to the UN high-level meeting on TB in 2023”.

He stressed that there is an urgent need to accelerate action globally if we are to meet the goals by 2030. “Over 1 million Nigerians have been successfully treated for tuberculosis since 2018 to date”. He added.

“Our treatment success rate (TSR) has been consistently above 80% for the past 5 years and we have also recorded good case holding. We are stepping up our efforts to ensure universal health coverage through TB services”.

He further revealed that globally, tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with “an estimated 10.6 million cases of TB in 2021, equivalent to 134 cases per 100,000 people”.

“About 26.3 million people received TB treatment during 2018-2021, which is still well below the 40 million target set by the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB for 2018- 2021 Nigeria ranks among the 30 countries with a high burden of TB in the world Sixth first in Africa, which is also included in the list of 14 countries with triple burden of TB, HIV and MDR-TB”.

He insisted that an estimated 429,000 people in Nigeria suffer from tuberculosis every year.

“To make real progress towards the global goal of ending TB by 2030, all stakeholders must join hands with governments in a multisectoral approach to TB control, in particular addressing the 24% low case detection 30% of the general population Insufficient awareness of tuberculosis, 25% universal health facility coverage and 57% local government Gene Xpert coverage for genetic diseases”.

The commissioner revealed that the number of TB diagnostic centers has also increased from 147 to 181, including private laboratories in the state, in addition to eight Gene Xpert sites, one TB lamp and one LF lamp.

“By 2022, a total of fifty-four thousand (51,041) people have been tested for TB in Zamfara State, of whom five thousand three hundred and seventy-nine (5,379) have been confirmed (TB cases) with TB status”.

He mentioned that of these cases in 2022, thirty-eight were drug-resistant TB and twenty-three (23) were TB/HIV cases.

“We have an increase of 1560 cases compared to 2021 in 2022 due to active case searching in the community, community mobilization, active contact tracing of index positive cases, free x-rays and stool diagnosis in children”.

He guaranteed free TB diagnosis and treatment at all centers across the state, “We are very aware of the challenges affecting TB programs in Nigeria, including Zamfara State”.

These challenges include insufficient funding, low awareness of TB among the general population, and few Gene-Xpert (8) testing centers in the state.

He said that despite some challenges, the Zamfara State Government is grateful to the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Program and the Institute of Human Virology for donating the TB light machine to the King Fahd Gusho Chest Clinic,

“These initiatives will substantially improve the diagnosis of TB and drug-resistant TB, with the overall aim of improving data in Zamfara State”.

“Similarly, the State Government thanks WHO, UNICEF, Health Systems Consulting Ltd, Family Health Association, Breakthrough Action, Voluntary Aid Initiative and Healthy Advancement, Red Cross for their support”.