Kwara’s health commissioner Amina El-Imam says Nigeria accounts for 25 per cent of neglected tropical diseases in Africa, with the highest disease burden.

Ms El-Imam stated this at a news conference organised to commemorate 2024 World NTDs Day on Tuesday in Ilorin.

The commissioner, who quoted baseline surveys, said that Kwara was endemic to NTDs, with many inhabitants at risk.

She described NTDs as a medically varied group of diseases caused by various pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasitic worms (helminths).

According to her, the diseases are predominantly found in tropical areas in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and parts of America.

“They include river blindness, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminths, leprosy, snake bite and rabies.

“NTDs pose major roadblocks to national progress and the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UCH).

“They are also impediments to poverty alleviation, economic growth and social development,” she said.

Ms El-Imam said the health ministry had put in efforts to eradicate the diseases through preventive chemotherapy and mass administration of medicines.

Others, she said, are active case search and case management, community engagement through advocacy and sensitisation, support monitoring and supervision.

The commissioner pointed out that in 2023, the Kwara NTDs programme made progress in its effort to prevent, control, eliminate and eradicate NTDs by training 2,525 school teachers.

The training was for the deworming of 569,289 school-aged children in Kwara.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said the day was significant to consider the severe effects of NTDs on the wellbeing and livelihoods of billions around the globe.

She noted that the disease was a constant reminder of the inequalities in the world today, while calling for collective efforts to help mobilise the resources needed to eradicate them.

(NAN)