By Chioma Obinna
WORRIED by the incessant increase in tuberculosis cases in Nigeria, a medical expert has warned of the probability of increase in incidence and management of Multi- Drug Resistant (MDR) and extra drug Resistant (XDR) tuberculosis in the country.
Head of the Microbiology Department at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Prof Folasade Ogunsola blaming the surge on inappropriate therapy, HIV and poor case detection as factors fueling the epidemic in Nigeria, affirmed that simple measures can reduce transmission of the diseases while advocating for cooperation and community mobilisation to improve detection.
Addressing about 300 Nigerian doctors at the Biannual Doctors’ Forum organised by Pathcare Nigeria, Ogunsola in a paper, entitled: “Multi – Drug Resistant Tuberculosis: Averting a crisis” reminded medical professionals of their roles.
“We all have a role to play. We are all in danger. TB remains one of the major causes of death from a single infectious agent worldwide”
Quoting a recent WHO report, she said WHO ranks Nigeria 4th amongst the 22 countries that bear the high burden of TB and recommends that these countries should detect at least 75 per cent of active TB cases and treat at least 85 per cent. We are not meeting this target. We are still at 30 per cent detection rate.”
She explained that if everyone is able to detect one cases of active TB, it will save 10 to 15 more people because one person with an active case can infect 10 to 15 more people when he coughs or sneezes.
She hinted that some Multi -Drug Resistant TB (MDR) strains are now resistant to all known TB drugs, adding that there is need for medical professionals not to see TB as a government problem but a problem for all stakeholders.
Stating that most case detection has been based on clinical presumptive, she recommended that the best way to prevent resistant TB is to get people to take the whole course of standard TB drugs.
However, there was still an urgency to allocate more money to treat people with Multi-drug resistant TB
Lamenting that most Nigerian doctors no little or nothing about Multi Drug Resistant TB regretted that most laboratories are not well supervised.
Stressing the need for a more integrated approach to the healthcare system, she recalled that TB was declared a National emergency in 2006 by the Federal Ministry of Health.
She decried the lack of TB drugs in most hospitals ans recommended case detection through quality assured bacteriology and the need to empower all care givers as well as proper screening.
