•Ending TB in Nigeria will be very difficult task — Dr. Gafar Alawode

By Gabriel Olawale

AS Nigeria  joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2022 World Tuberculosis Day, the Medical Officer at Ojodu Primary Healthcare Centre, Lagos State, Dr. Tolu Akinkumi, spoke about her experience with tuberculosis recently, it was a revelation.

Akinkunmi, who spoke during the media engagement parley organised by the Lagos State Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme in collaboration with Journalists Against AIDS, JAAIDS, stated that her first encounted with the disease  occurred at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.

According to her, the thought of TB didn’t cross her mind when she started  experiencing recurrent fever.

“It was sometime around March, 2020 when I started experiencing recurrent fever. I thought it was normal fever, so I used unbranded anti-malarial but when the situation persisted, I used a branded anti-malarial along with antibiotics but the situation did not change.

“I didn’t cough much which is the typical symptom of TB, but because it was during COVID-19, I quickly submitted myself for a screen test. The result came out negative, and I became  scared of what could likely be the cause. 

“Since it was during the lockdown, I tried everything that I could to subdue the fever, but it didn’t go away.

I was confused and frustrated. The only thing that raised some form of suspicion was when I went for a scan that showed signs of TB. After series of other tests, I was diagnosed with TB.”

Tolu said that the confirmation of TB created more fear in her as she tried to recollect how she might have come in contact with the disease. 

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“For two weeks I couldn’t go out. I lost about 10 kg in the two weeks. I was down and frustrated. To my surprise, during that period, about five or six doctors called me to share their own experience with TB, these were people that  I cvcould never imagine that they can have it.” Tolu said when she commenced treatment, there was no noticeable  improvement in the first and second weeks, but during the third week, she noticed a major improvement.

“The only thing was that I suffered a lot of side effects from the drugs , but I eventually overcome them. It is better to imagine than experience that miserable life of not being able to stand up from the bed. Now I understand when my patients complain that they are  tired of taking drugs.

“Some months after I was free of TB, I  did some investigations that made me understand that if I had not  treated the TB on time, I could have experienced renal TB which is mopre deadly.”

In a reaction to the high incidence of TB in Nigeria, the Managing Partner, Development Governance International Consult, Dr. Gafar Alawode  disclosed that the incidence and mortality rate for TB have not declined for almost two decades.  

Alawode regretted that countries in the same income bracket as Nigeria such as Angola and India are funding more than 80 percent of their TB budget locally, while the Nigeria is only funding around 10 percent of the annual budget locally.

“At  27 percent, Nigeria has the lowest coverage rate among the 30 high burden TB countries. With this low level of treatment coverage, ending TB will be difficult as it will be difficult to break the chain of infection including the more dangerous drug-resistant TB.  

On his part, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye said that TB is easily curable, but it can lie dormant and undetected for years, so it’s important to spread awareness. It may seem like an outdated disease, but around one- third of the World’s population is infected with TB.

Currently, Nigeria is ranked 7th among the 20 TB high-burdened countries in the world with Lagos State having the highest TB burden in Nigeria.

With a population of over 23 million people and a projected 3.2 percent annual growth rate, the incidence rate of TB in Lagos State is 219 /100,000 population. Prevalence rate is 330/ 100,000  population while the annual expected notification rate is about 50,000 TB cases.  As part of improvement, the Lagos State Ministry of Health through the support of Global fund have DOTS Centres, Community care workers, 18 X-ray machines, Gene Xpert sites in all the 20 LGAs of the State and have launched three  mobile x-ray vans to increase active case search in the State.