Nigeria records worst TB burden in Africa
One hundred years after the launch of the Tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, Nigeria ranks worst in Africa and 6th among 20 countries with the highest burden of TB in the world.
To this end, the country yesterday launched the first 16 Module GeneXpert machine for the detection of TB in a private laboratory in Lagos even as the Federal Government has been urged to step up private sector contribution to improve the poor global ranking in TB burden.
Speaking during the official launch at the EL-Lab Medical Laboratory Diagnostic Ltd, Festac, Lagos as part of the USAID funded SHOPS Plus project, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, prof Akin Abayomi said Nigeria contributes 8 percent of the million missing TB cases in the world while Lagos contributes 11 percent in the country’s TB burden.
Abayomi, represented by a Director at the State Ministry of Health, Dr. Agbo Lagoritie said it is important to recognise the the contribution of private sector facilities such as EL-Lab.
The occasion marked this year’s World Tuberculosis Day with the theme: “The Clock is Ticking”, and the slogan adapted by Nigeria is “That cough, e fit be TB, not COVID, check am oo!”
It was organized in collaboration with the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control programme, NTBLCP, Lagos State TB Programme, and the USAID SHOPS Plus project.
The Chief executive Director of EL-Lab, Dr. Elochukwu Adibo said data made available by NTBLCP, has shown that private sector engagement has increased TB cases detection by 68% in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 2019.
Further, Adibo said private sector participation increased case detection from 104,904 cases in 2017, to 106,533 in 2018, and 120,266 in 2019 respectively.
“TB is still a major public health problem in Nigeria and a leading cause of death among infectious diseases. The adoption of the GeneXpert MTB/RIF test as the entry point diagnostic tool for Tb case detection was done in 2016 and the Federal Government in its wisdom, through the FMOH NTBLCP, engaged private health sector including Guild of Medical Doctors, GMLD, of Lab Private Sector, Association of General Private Medical Practitioners, AGPMPN, community pharmacists and Association of General Private Nurses Practitioners of Nigeria, AGPNPN and others to help increase case detection and treatment.
Adibo said, with the donation, EL-Lab applied private-sector efficiency-optimized testing with the machine and brought about significant improvement in TB detection and testing with tremendous support and partnership from the USAID SHOPS PLUS programme network and their technical and logistic excellence.
Citing what EL-Lab has done with other private labs, he said, in Lagos State, private sector contribution was less than 3% in 2018 to Tb detection but has now risen to 21% in 2021, bringing the Nigerian case detection rate to 31% up from 24% in 2017.
