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
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