By EMMANUEL OLONIRUHA

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has reaffirmed its commitment towards ending Tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria by 2030.

The governors gave the commitment in a statement by NGF Chairman and Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State in Abuja in commemoration of the 2021 World Tuberculosis Day.

Fayemi explained that tuberculosis was an airborne disease that affected millions of people regardless of socio-economic status.

“Though it is preventable and curable, it has remained the deadliest infectious disease globally.

“Currently, Nigeria is one of the countries with the highest burden of TB, ranking first in Africa and sixth globally.

“It is estimated that about 18 Nigerians die of TB everyday which translates to 432 people monthly and 157,000 yearly,” he said.

Fayemi said that over the last decade, government and partners had implemented various interventions to ensure that people with TB were found and treated.

He said however, that the advent of COVID-19 pandemic and its control measures in 2020 further impacted on the health system including TB services, setting back progress made.

Fayemi added that in spite the setback, the government in partnership with other stakeholders were working to address the challenges.

These according to him were by strengthening the capacity of state TB Programme to be more effective in its role; support revitalisation and upgrading of health facilities to provide appropriate TB services especially diagnosis.

He also listed the measures to include mobilisation of more domestic resources for TB programme and activities in the state and to establish a multi-stakeholder State Stop TB Partnerships.

“Therefore, in accordance with the theme of this year’s World TB Day – “The Clock is Ticking”, we reaffirm our commitment to work with other stakeholders to end TB in our respective states.

“We also call on the Federal Government to provide necessary support to the states to be able to domesticate and achieve the targets and commitments made at the United Nations high-level meeting on tuberculosis held in 2018.

“These targets and commitments expect that by 2022, we will be back on track in our efforts to ensure we are able to end TB by 2030,” Fayemi said.

“Today, the NGF joins the rest of the world to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day, ” he said.

He said that the celebration provided an opportunity for the entire world to intensify public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic impact of tuberculosis.

“It also helps to renew our commitment to accelerate efforts at the national, state, local government and community levels to eradicate TB in Nigeria,” Fayemi said. (NAN)