Nigeria is expected to have 432,000 tuberculosis cases annually.

The Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Tuberculosis Local Organisation Network have disclosed.

The IHVN’s director of technical programmes, Olugbenga Daniel, explained that until 2020, the country’s case finding had been staggering around 24 to 25 per cent, “which is about 100,000 or 105,000 cases.”

Mr Daniel added, “In 2019, we increased to about 116,000/ 120,000 cases, and thereafter we had an increase in 2020 to about 130,000 cases. All these are out of the expected 432,000.” 

He further pointed out, “So, this boils down to the fact that we still have over 300,000 TB cases annually that are yet to be diagnosed, and another insight to that is that one positive index TB patient infects 15 people annually.”

Continuing, Mr Daniel stated, “For the facility intervention, basically what we have done is to ensure 100 per cent of the patients that visit the facility are screened for TB.

“When we say screened for TB, we are talking about the clinical screening, asking questions, and identifying those that are presumed to have TB.” 

According to Mr Daniel, individuals screened are sent for further investigation, and the cases identified were placed on treatment.

“For the facility, we have the private and public facility interventions.

“The public facilities are mainly the general hospitals, teaching hospitals. For the private facilities, we have private-for-profit facilities, individually-owned facilities that are supported for TB, and we also engage some faith-based facilities,” he explained.

Last May, the Anambra State Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Management said one in 13 Anambra residents had tuberculosis.

In April, the federal government disclosed that COVID-19 had worsened tuberculosis cases in Nigeria as about 60 per cent of patients go unnoticed and untreated as 2020 World Health Organisation report ranked Nigeria first in leading TB cases in Africa and sixth in the world.