The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has raised the alarm over the increasing cases of tuberculosis in the country.
Buhari, represented by the wife of the Vice-President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, spoke at the opening ceremony of a two-day conference organised by the Stop-TB Partnership Nigeria and the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme in Abuja.
She also called for a concerted effort to tackle the disease urgently, saying, “It is responsible for several untimely deaths in Nigeria.”
According to her, the Federal Government cannot tackle the TB burden alone hence the need for assistance from development partners.
Buhari, who is an ambassador for the “Stop TB campaign”, lamented that Nigeria had a high TB burden due to poor awareness on the symptoms of the disease and late diagnosis.
She said, “Tuberculosis is the number one killer disease in Africa. Statistics show approximately 600,000 people become infected with the disease in Nigeria every year. The majority of the new infections affect children. Also, it is the common cause of death in persons living with HIV/AIDS.
“The emergence of multi-drug resistance TB is also not acceptable. It is also not acceptable that Nigeria has one of the lowest detection rates in the world. Over 170,000 Nigerians are dying from a preventable and curable disease.”
United Nations special envoy, Mr Eric Goosby, in his speech, said a strong political will from the government and other stakeholders was necessary, adding that if delayed, the threat of TB would worsen on the continent.
