The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said inadequate funding, particularly in domestic funding for Tuberculosis (TB), is hampering the country’s efforts to end the TB epidemic by 2030.
While the global health body further stated that in 2021, 70 per cent of the TB budget was not funded, available data shows that there is a 70 per cent funding deficit for the TB budget in Nigeria, with 23 per cent of funding coming from donor partners and only seven per cent from the government.
The WHO further stated that with 258,000 missing TB cases in Nigeria, even though case detection increased by 50 per cent between 2020 and 2021, the country may not achieve the global goal to end TB by 2030.
During a virtual media roundtable organised by the Stop TB Partnership in Nigeria, in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) of the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Professional Officer of TB in Nigeria for WHO, Dr Amos Omoniyi said: “Nigeria is off-track in its target to end TB in the year 2030, even though case notification increased by 50 per cent between 2020 and 2021. If we continue with the current trend of case findings, we may begin to see a decline in cases, but may not achieve the 2030 target. We may achieve the 2035 target.
“Nigeria needs to mobilise adequate domestic resources for TB and implement data-driven, evidence-based and technology-enhanced interventions. Also, efforts need to be ramped up as 452,000 Nigerians fall ill with TB every year, while one person dies of TB every three minutes.”
The National Coordinator of the NTBLCP, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, noted that while Nigeria is still ranked first in Africa and 6th in the world for TB burden, 71 per cent of TB patients in Nigeria are still affected by catastrophic costs.
“Last year, we were able to notify over 207,000 cases of TB. There is however still more to be done to end TB in Nigeria,” he said.
The Deputy Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership in Geneva, Dr Sahu Suvanand, while noting that globally $250 billion is needed annually to combat TB, urged Nigeria to increase domestic funding through the budget.