Pandemic compounding TB eradication, says Buhari

 Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

THE scourge of the dreaded Tuberculosis disease has been worsened by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.

He stated this yesterday in his goodwill message to the roundtable conference of the Board of the Global Stop TB Partnership.

The President, however, called on the international community to act in unison with rededicated efforts, using latest available technology and tools to tackle the epidemic.

In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, President Buhari said Nigeria remains one of the countries bearing the brunt of the scourge.

”The reversal of Nigeria’s difficult health indices, remains a top priority of this administration, including the gap in TB case detection, fueled partly by the dearth of acceptable, accessible, affordable and patient-centred basic health facilities,” the President told the roundtable session of Ministers of Health during the 33rd Board Meeting of the Global Stop TB Partnership.

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Apprising the meeting on efforts to reverse TB cases in the country, the Nigerian leader said his government had conceptualised and is currently implementing the Primary Health Care (PHC) revitalisation programme, to empower more PHC centres to provide quality basic healthcare in the treatment of TB, HIV, malaria and other health challenges delivered in a patient-centred way.

Buhari added that the Federal Government was also implementing the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, prescribed by the National Health Act, to bridge the gap in healthcare financing, with funds released to support provision of a basic minimum package of health services.

According to him, “We are also improving funding of health services through voluntary contributory schemes that reduce out of pocket spending and the risk of catastrophic costs to patients and their families, including those with TB.”