The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation have promised to support President Muhammadu Buhari, to fulfil his pledge to treat 1.2 million Nigerians of TB by 2022.
USAID and KNCV gave the promise, even as they called on the governments at all levels to show commitments in addressing some of the challenges identified against successful eradication of TB in Nigeria.
The stakeholders who were in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health under the Challenge TB Programme, funded by USAID and implemented by KNCV said since TB is treatable, no one should die from the disease.
The USAID Nigeria’s Mission Director, Stephen Haykins, who spoke during the Challenge TB close ceremony in Abuja, stated that about 581,000 Nigerians have received treatment for Tuberculosis between 2015 and 2019 in 14 states of the country, under the Challenge TB Programme, sponsored by USAID.
Since the commencement of the programme in 2015, he pointed out that the treatment of TB has witnessed an increase in coverage from 15 per cent to 24 per cent in 2019.
Stephen Haykins said: “Since 2014, Challenge TB has provided technical support to the National TB programme in 14 states, helping to close gaps in diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, contributing to improving access to TB services, preventing TB disease progression and strengthening.
“More than 581,000 Nigerians were treated for TB under the Challenge TB’s auspices, and treatment coverage improved from 15 per cent in 2015 to 24 per cent today.”
According to him: “When the activity began, public awareness about the disease was very low – only about 30 per cent of Nigerians were aware of the signs and symptoms of TB. In response, Challenge TB set up a National TB contact centre to provide key information about the disease.
“In collaboration with the government and other TB partners, Challenge TB worked to raise awareness, reduce stigma and improve health-seeking behaviours among vulnerable Nigerians.”
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Also telling the success story, KNCV Foundation Country Representative Officer, Dr Bethrand Odume, told Tribune Online that the foundation was able to work with the National Programme for TB to add about 20,000 new TB cases increasing from 88,000 cases per year to over a 100,000 by the end of 2018.
He stated that most of that successes actually came from support through the USAID implementation of the challenge TB burden, adding that KNCV Foundation was in charge of the implementation of the programme in 14 states.
The funding portfolio, according to him has varied over time, but he added that the budget funded was in the tune of over $40 million.
He assured that everybody was very optimistic about eradicating TB in Nigeria but he insisted that it was a collaborative effort and the government of Nigeria has to show commitment to address the challenges.
The major challenge according to Dr Odume is a weak health system, adding, “weak health system is the challenge we face. We can provide the drugs, we can have healthcare staff but when you don’t have a good health system to attend to people that need services, that has been the challenges.
“Majority of the people receive TB services at the lower cadre of health facilities and within those level, there is a dearth of human resources.”
He explained that the KNCV Foundation Nigeria got a grant from the US Government through the USAID in 2015 to implement comprehensive TB activities under the Challenge TB initiative across 14 states in Nigeria.
He stated that the KNCV successfully concluded implementation at the end of last year and was meeting the stakeholders to showcase the results, share lessons learnt and try to establish a new partnership.
The Director of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, Dr Umoh Ene-Obong, said the Federal Government would continue to implement and upscale the TB case yielding intervention demonstrated by the Challenge TB programme.
“Nigeria has learnt great lessons from the innovative ways of the implementation of this project and we are already bringing them to scale in a sustainable way,” she said.
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