Lawmakers in Nigeria, both in the states and at the federal level have been warned to take serious attention to the eradication of tuberculosis by ensuring that adequate fund is appropriated to tackle the scourge in the country.
They are also warned to take note that fund from development partners is dwindling and as such should make all needed commitment to increase domestic funds to tackle the scourge.
The Chairman of Africa TB Caucus, and a member of the Kenyan Parliament, Steven Mule, sounded this note of warning on Wednesday at the National Tuberculosis Conference 2019 in Abuja.
The National Tuberculosis Conference 2019 themed “Building Stronger Partnership to End TB in Nigeria” had in attendance, medical practitioners engage in Tuberculosis within and outside the country, Civil Society Organisations, International donours and development partners, and federal and states government representatives.
At the conference which was organized by Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Mule said, “members of parliament have a very great role to play to deal with this menace of TB globally. Nigeria, I know you have just come back from elections, you have members of Parliament and they have a role to make sure that we have resources.
“The resources we have been looking forward to deal with the issue of tuberculosis not only in Africa but globally have been coming from donours.
“I want to warn Nigerians, the donor fund tap is drying up. We must up our game on domestic financing and that must be put clearly by the legislatures in Nigeria.”
Mule reveled that he would meet with the former chair of the TB parliamentary caucus to discuss on the transition and the way forward to make sure that the new members who have come to the house have a role to play on legislation in assuring that “we have clear domestic financing locally and to make sure that they provide a platform to speak about TB within their political career,” he revealed.
He also advised Nigeria to ensure that the government put priorities on the target of the United Nations to end TB by 2030 and deal with the menace once and for all.
Also the Executive Director of Stop TB Geneva, Dr. Lucica Ditiu challenged all stakeholder involved in combating the menace to collaborate. She noted that the problem with tackling communicable disease like TB is that stakeholders are not always keen on working together.
She commended the Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari for her commitment to eradicating TB in Nigeria. She noted that there is “huge potentials in terms of political leadership of the country having such high level feasibility for TB”.
Ditiu also urged that private sector should be invited on board to take up the challenge.
The Mission Director of the USAID in Nigeria, Stephen Haykin said that the agency has signed an agreement with the Federal Ministry of Health to fight and end TB in Nigeria.
He pointed out that detecting missing TB cases remain a huge challenge in the fight against TB in the country and that public awareness is very low.
Haykin said that the USAID is committed to assist the government in detecting missing cases and other challenges in eradicating TB in the country.
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of health, Abdullahi Mashi who was represented by the Director of Public Health in the Ministry, Dr. Evelyn Ngige said that the ministry through the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Elimination Programme established the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy training center in Zaria to undertake human resourced development for development control.
He said that the ministry has expanded the tuberculosis treatment and diagnostic services. He said that there are over 2800 microscopic centers, he also said that over 20 states out of the 36 states and the FCT have capacity to manage drug resistant TB treatment centers.
He also explained that the treatment center for TB in Nigeria has been above 80% in the past five years.
He said that the ministry has articulated a plan and road map for translating the commitments made by the federal government at the United Nations meeting on TB in 2018 into action.
He said they have initiative a TB scorecard for performance monitoring of the state tuberculosis control programmes.
He reiterated that partnership must be forged to control and eliminate TB in the country. He said the government is committed to implementing the recommendation from the conference.
