• February 11, 2025

If adequate measures are not put in place to curtail the spread of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB), it may soon become a huge epidemic in Nigeria.
TB Specialist for National TB and Leprosy Control Programme in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Babawale Victor, pointed this out at a  workshop on Drug-Resistant TB (DR-TB) in Abuja, yesterday.
The workshop was put together by the NTBLCP in partnership with the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria and the Treatment Action Group (TAG) New York.
According to him: “Base on the burden of drug resistant TB we have in Nigeria now, if we don’t take adequate strategies so that the case finding continue to go up like the way we see it coming down now, if we don’t put in much effort, the cases that we have in the society that have not been treated will spread.
“An epidemic means when you have a disease in which the notification rate is above the usual.
 “This is because if we don’t make sure that our case finding strategy begins to go up so that we can have an impact of reducing the prevalence, then we will have an epidemic in the sense that there could be a disease explosion.
“That is why the Programme is to make sure that we are controlling the disease. We are still at the stage of making sure that the burden of the disease is stem down and prevent the spread of the disease and infection.”
Enumerating some of the challenges bedeviling the fight against resistant TB in Nigeria, Dr Victor, said: “One major challenge we have is that we still do not have enough Gen Xpert machines. This is  because in the whole country we have only 403 Gen Xpert machines and some local governments don’t even have.
“Out of the 774 local governments, we have just 305 that have Gen Xperts machines. There are some local governments that are far away where we have patients where there is no Gen Xpert, there is inaccessibility may be a major challenge.
“Secondly, even the Gen Xpert machines we have that are available are not fully optimized. Virtually, out of the 403 Gen Xpert machines almost all of them have their total of modules broken down.”
“There is issue of power supply. All these are issues affecting the Gen Xpert machine and limiting diagnosis of drug resistant TB in the country.
“Another challenge we have is the aspect of information. A lot of people are not aware what drug resistant TB are all about. And also the aspect of stigma.
“There is poor level of awareness, when patients are diagnosed and are not well counselled to tell them that TB has a cure, you need observe your treatment, even when you take your drugs, there are adverse drug reaction but there are antidotes to them. Some people are being given wrong information that if you use the drugs you will become deaf. It’s a lie. The regimen has been changed and that does no longer happen. So, these gaps in information are preventing a lot of people from coming to access treatment, care and support.
“Another challenge is that we have patients who are diagnosed but cannot be traced. We need support on contact tracing in order to bring these patients under treatment.”
He applauded Global Fund for its immense contribution which he described as “gap filling”, insisting that: “We need other stakeholders to come on board. We need the USAID to support, even though they are trying their best. We need other partners to come and support.
“We need the federal, states and local governments to come and support and all other cooperate organisations. Let them bring in their Corporate Social Responsibility to make sure that patients have access to treatment, care and support.
“If we don’t treat these patients, they will spread the disease and most people will become endangered.
“One person can spread to as many as 15 people if not treated. We must make sure we bring all of them and put them under treatment.”
Earlier, the National Coordinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP), Chukwuma Anyaike, called on all stakeholders to put in their best in the fight against the drug resistant TB in order to halt the chain of transmission.
“Why we are calling these stakeholders is to ensure we put in our best, not on drug resistant TB cases alone but on all TB cases to make sure that we get them and then we treat them and they are cured.
“We are trying to cut the chain of transmission. If we do not cut the chain of transmission, we may be causing more harm because people in the community will still get to be infected.
“If we don’t cut the chain of infection making sure that the ones that are infected placing them on treatment within that particular time of treatment and they get cured then we are having problem.”

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