…urge States to intensify fight

By Ike Uchechukwu, Calabar

Public health experts and key stakeholders have raised serious concerns over the soaring cases of Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria, warning that the situation is fast becoming a national emergency.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 66th National Council on Health in Calabar, they emphasized the urgent need for stronger state level funding and greater ownership of TB interventions amid rapidly declining global support.

Ibrahim Tajudeen, Executive Secretary of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for the Global Fund, revealed that donor funding for TB is shrinking sharply. He stressed that external support must only complement and not replace robust investments from the federal and state governments if Nigeria hopes to curb the disease.

Nigeria currently bears one of the heaviest TB burdens in the world, recording an estimated 500,000 new infections annually and one death every eight minutes. The country ranks sixth globally and first in Africa for TB prevalence.

Tajudeen urged state commissioners for health to assume stronger responsibility for financing and delivering TB services, noting that genuine health ownership must be driven at the state level. He also advised states to maximize limited resources by leveraging the one percent Consolidated Revenue Fund, which supports more than 13,000 primary healthcare facilities nationwide.

Mayowa Joel, Executive Secretary of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, also decried the worsening situation, describing it as a crisis that demands immediate action.

“Despite free diagnosis and treatment nationwide, too many Nigerians especially children continue to die from a disease that is both preventable and curable,” he said.

According to him, children remain severely affected, with 57,000 new TB cases every year and more than 80,000 eligible for preventive treatment, though only a small proportion currently receive it.

He stressed the need to close these gaps urgently to protect vulnerable populations from avoidable deaths.

Stakeholders at the NCH unanimously agreed that Nigeria can meet the United Nations 2030 target of ending TB, but only if states intensify efforts, increase funding, expand early testing, and scale up preventive care.

They warned that without immediate state level commitment and innovative approaches to cushion the decline in global funding, Nigeria risks losing ground in its fight against Tuberculosis.