Development Communications Network (DevComs), an NGO, has urged Federal Government to pay more attention
to Tuberculosis (TB) response.
The group’s Programme Director, Akin Jimoh, made the appeal in a statement on Thursday in Lagos, in commemoration of the 2022 World TB
Day, which has “Invest to End TB: Save Lives” as its theme.
The day is annually marked on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic impact on people.
Jimoh, who stated that there was need for urgent attention to check the spread of the menace in the country, emphasised improved investment to
end the preventable and curable disease.
He said “we need to continuously sound the alarm on the unacceptable low levels of funding for TB response in Nigeria.
“Of the 373 million dollars needed for TB control in Nigeria in the year 2020, only 31 per cent was available to all the implementers of TB control activities,
with seven per cent domestic and 24 per cent donor funds, a 69 per cent funding gap.
“TB is a huge burden in Nigeria which can be tackled with adequate investment; it can be prevented, diagnosed, treated and cured.
“Government must step up and triple or quadruple TB funding to save lives and end TB by 2030.”
Jimoh said that DevCom had identified that TB response had become an urgent priority because it was a major public health challenge that killed millions of people every year.
He said global efforts to combat TB had saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000, noting, however, that the COVID-19 pandemic had
reversed years of progress made in the fight to end the scourge.
He stated that “for the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020.
“World TB Day is an opportunity to focus on the people affected by this disease and to call for accelerated action to end sufferings and deaths, especially in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
