Oyo reported one leprosy, 5,848 TB, cases in six months —Official

THE Oyo State Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme recorded 5,848 cases of tuberculosis in the first half of 2023 and a case of leprosy in the first quarter of the year.

The state programme officer, Dr Johnson Babalola, who made this known at a four-day review meeting and planning of the USAID-Breakthrough Action-Nigeria (BAN)  in Ibadan, said 44 out of the 11,802 students screened for TB in schools across the state in May during the National TB Testing Week, also had the infection.

He stated that 39 of the adults tested among the 264 encountered during the school visitation exercise also tested positive for tuberculosis infection.

According to him, in 2022, of the 135,454 individuals screened for TB in Oyo State, 11,751 were diagnosed and placed on treatment, with 663 of them co-infected with TB and HIV.

Dr Babalola stated that on average, between 2,800 and 3,000 new tuberculosis cases are detected every quarter in the state, because of increased community active case findings and expansion of screening facilities to 151 health facilities across the state, as well as functional equipment like genexpert and truenat machines to enhance TB diagnosis.

“Oyo State accounts for the 13th high TB burden state within the country. Someone in the world is newly infected with TB every second. Left untreated, each person with active TB disease will infect on average between 10 and 15 people every year,” he said.

The expert said potential transmitters of tuberculosis germ are persons with TB of the lungs, with cough, not on treatment, just started treatment, with positive TB test result and those with a poor response to treatment.

He declared that those most at risk for tuberculosis disease are those with HIV infection, including young children, elderly people who inject drugs, those who are sick with other diseases that weaken the immune system and not treated correctly for TB in the past as well as contacts of TB patients such as households and health staff.

According to him, “any person coughing for two weeks or more with or without night sweats, chest pain, shortness of breath and loss of appetite should be presumed to have TB of the lungs.”

The expert noted that TB test is a prerequisite even when travelling abroad as anybody can have TB, including people with other diseases such as HIV and diabetes.