Government urged to show more commitment to TB control

March 23, 2007 :: O'Femi Kolawole,Lagos, Journalists Against AIDS(JAAIDS)Nigeria

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world in marking the 2007 World TB Day on Saturday, March 24, the Nigerian government has been urged to exhibit more political commitment in confronting the TB epidemic in the country, the same way it is addressing the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

According to TB experts who spoke at a media roundtable organized by Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria in Lagos on Wednesday, March 21, despite government’s political commitment to TB control through its active involvement in high level meetings like the Abuja Declaration to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2001 and 2005, public awareness of TB treatment services at the federal, state and local levels is still very low.

Thus, the inability of people with TB to access treatment, early case detection through reliable diagnoses the experts say, is responsible for Nigeria’s present ranking as the 4th among countries with the highest TB burden in the world.

 Dr. Dan Onwujekwe, TB researcher and Senior Research Fellow at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), said many TB patients who come for treatment at the TB clinic in NIMR are attesting to the effectiveness of the Directly Observed Therapy Short course (DOTS). “They are getting cured after undergoing DOTS, the internationally recognized strategy for TB control which often takes about eight months”.

Unfortunately, he added that not many patients adhere strictly to taking the drugs as prescribed by their doctors. “Non adherence is a dangerous situation because it always leads to drug resistance which limits the treatment options available.” he said. 

He disclosed that in spite of the inextricable linkage between TB and HIV, sites that offer HIV testing find it difficult to diagnose TB among patients infected with both diseases, because current diagnostic tests fail to detect active TB in 60-80 % of people with TB.

He urged the government to increase its funding of TB research and diagnosis while charging the media to help in creating awareness about the availability of free TB treatment as well as advocacy against stigma and discrimination in all its form against people with TB.

 Kingsley Obom-Egbulem, JAAIDS Head of Research and Communications said Nigeria must step up its current TB response with a view to stopping more painful albeit preventable TB related deaths. “I strongly believe that the most painful death any one can experience is dying a preventable death. TB related death symbolizes this painful death because it is preventable and we really can’t hold our heads high if we continue to lose our people to TB when there are mechanisms-such as DOTS for addressing it.”

Earlier, Olayide Akanni, JAAIDS Acting Executive Director had lamented that despite being preventable and curable; more than half a million Africans and 2 million people globally die each year from TB, the leading infectious cause of death for people living with HIV/AIDS.

More worrisome, she added, is the fact that most people, even those at risk of contracting the disease as well as people living with HIV/AIDS, lack accurate information about TB symptoms or where to seek treatment. 

“Again, the stigma and discrimination against TB patients especially from care providers also discourage patients from accessing treatment. We need to correct these anomalies if we really want to curb the epidemic in our country”, Akanni explained.

She emphasized that these interventionist strategies are necessary to avoid a situation where Nigeria would be faced with extremely drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) and the multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) which could reduce the treatment options available for those with the disease.

A unique feature of the roundtable was the testimonies of people who have been cured of TB and are well and alive today. Four of them shared their experiences with TB and how they were cured of the disease. One thing that was common in their stories was the role of early diagnoses, and the monitoring of their treatment by qualified and committed medical personnel. Of course, the place of stigma (especially from health workers) as an obstacle in treatment effectiveness was also identified.

 The roundtable also featured the launch of a recent country report on TB Policy in Nigeria: Civil Society Perspective –a research project conducted by Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria with support from the Open Society Institute (OSI).
 
Every year, March 24th is set aside as the World Tuberculosis Day by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to recognise the global fight against TB. The theme of this year’s World TB Day is “TB anywhere is TB everywhere”. The roundtable was part of efforts by Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria to create a platform for addressing Nigeria’s huge TB burden.