Nigeria commemorated the 2009 World Stop TB Day on Tuesday 24th March 2009, The slogan ‘I am stopping TB’ was adopted as the national theme for this year’s celebration. At a press conference to mark the occasion, the Honourable Minister of Health Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, said that TB is still a major public health problem in Nigeria, with the country ranking 5th among the 22 high TB burden countries which collectively bear 80% of the global burden of TB. The Minister revealed that the number of TB cases notified in the country increased from 31,264 in 2002 to 90,307 in 2008; more than 450,000 TB cases have been successfully treated free of charge in the past 5 years in Nigeria.

In addition to Federal Government Officials, guests at the occasion included representatives of partners (WHO, USAID, CIDA, ILEP, CDC), the network of persons affected by TB, and non-governmental organisations working in TB.

According to the Minister, the TB burden in Nigeria is further compounded by the high HIV/AIDS prevalence of 4.6%. Consequently, the FMOH has developed a strategy to maximise collaboration between HIV and TB programmes in Nigeria and has instituted a policy that all TB suspects and patients should be screened for HIV while all HIV positive patients should also be screened for TB. As a result of this policy, about 58, 942 TB patients (65.2% of the registered TB patients in 2008) were screened for HIV last year, out of which 14,698(24.94%) were found to be HIV positive.

Professor Osotimehin informed the gathering that the emergence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is adversely affecting the TB control efforts in Nigeria, although the true burden of drug-resistant TB in Nigeria is largely unknown. To improve identification of cases, the Federal Ministry of Health has established, with support from the Global Fund, a National Reference Laboratory for the diagnosis of MDR-TB at the Nigeria Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) Lagos and is equipping one zonal reference laboratory in each of the six geopolitical zones of the Federation. The Ministry is also sourcing for second line anti-TB drugs.

Additional Government actions to reduce the high TB burden in the country includes the establishment of the AIDS, TB and Malaria (ATM) task force directly under ministerial supervision and the launching of the Nigeria Stop TB Partnership which took place on 27th April 2009. These measures, according to the Minister, will go a long way in supporting Governments efforts in advocacy and mobilisation of additional resources from the private sector and multilateral organizations for the control of TB in Nigeria; they will also improve the chances of reaching the Stop TB and MDG targets for TB control by 2015.

The WHO Country Representative, Dr Peter Eriki, presenting the goodwill message of the African Regional Director of WHO, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo for The 2009 World TB Stop TB Day, recalled that although the organism that causes tuberculosis was discovered by Robert Koch exactly 127 years ago that TB is still a major public health problem especially in the African Region. He further explained that the region accounts for 30% of the global TB burden even though it represents approximately only 10% of the world population. Furthermore, the region’s ability to identify cases and ensure successful completion of treatment remains below the set targets.

The WHO African regional director stressed for “the implementation of the STOP TB strategy in it is entirety” in all the countries within region (including Nigeria) in order to improve case detection and treatment outcomes. This should include systematic community mobilization which would result in bringing a greater number of suspected TB cases to the health facility for screening.

“Every diagnosed TB patient must be placed on quality TB treatment and control programmes at all levels must strive to minimize patient transfers, defaults and deaths” so as to help break the chain of transmission of TB infection.

The RD also stressed the importance of the private sector, individuals, families and communities in TB control noting that “the fight to control TB cannot be won by health care providers in the public sector alone”.

Dr Eriki, to round up the commemoration of the 2009 World TB day decorated the Honorable minister of health, Professor Babtunde Oshotimehin and several of his staff with the StopTB strategy badge.