Experts seek holistic action plan against tuberculosis

Stakeholders and professionals in the Nigerian health sector have been enjoined to educate members of the public more on the dangers inherent in the deadly tuberculosis ailment.

President of the Nigeria Thoracic Society (NTS), Professor Etete Peters, made the call in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital at the weekend in a symposium organised by the Nigeria Thoracic Society (NTS) in collaboration with the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), to mark the 2017 World Tuberculosis Day.

According to Etete, who doubles as the Chief Medical Director (CMD) at the UUTH, the world’s population is heavily infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, disclosing that  “new infections occur every second” and solicited for innovative strategies to provide better care and what “Directly Observed Treatment Strategy (DOTS)”.

Prof. Peters established the link between Tuberculosis and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, explained that Tuberculosis puts TB victims at greater risk of contracting HIV\AIDS virus and solicited for a comprehensive action plan to tackle the scourge among the country’s population.

He noted that “the problem has been further compounded by the emergence of multi-drug resistance and even more recently, the extensively drug resistant TB”.

“Globally up to half a million people developed multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) reported by 100 countries”, he disclosed.

Tuberculosis, he said, “is the single commonest infectious disease worldwide with an estimated 9 million cases and 1.5million deaths annually”.

“Though TB is a medical disease, it has a lot of socio economic cofounders. There is slow progress in tackling drug-resistant TB – 3 in 4 drug-resistant TB cases remain without a diagnosis’’. ‘TB affects the economically productive age group in the community, thereby affecting productivity. More worrisome is the fact that about one in three people with TB are never diagnosed.

“This means they will not be treated and they will continue to transmit the disease in the community,” he stated. He commended the organisers of the programme and enjoined them not to rest on their oars but to mount vigorous advocacy most especially to the rural communities in order to stem the tides of the deadly ailments.

In her presentation Doctor Christie Akwawo of community health School, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, said that Nigeria ranked high among the 23 countries with highest disease burden globally.

He noted that although the country had made some significant strides towards TB control, “but we know we can do better and faster to achieve the “End TB” campaign.

“Since the disease is equally a social malady, improvement in living conditions of the people will also assist in effective control,” she opined.

She, however, called for increased funding in the research and development of new TB diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.