The World TB Day passed quietly in Nigeria. The government probably prefers it this way. Nigeria is among the 22 high TB burden countries in the world and ranks 2nd in Africa. The national response is led by the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme located within the Department of Public Health in the Federal Ministry of Health. On a day like the World TB Day - one cannot help but wonder, why they were all so quiet.
At least our colleagues at the Association for Reproductive and Family Health took the advocacy campaign on TB to radios stations around the country.
You may not remember that in our usual way in Nigeria, TB was declared a "national emergency" in June 2006 after which an "emergency plan" for the control of TB in Nigeria was developed. Targets were agreed upon - including; by 2015, to reduce TB prevalence and death rates by 50% relative to the 1990 level. Carrying out well managed surveillance would be the ideal way of measuring the burden of diseases, but in Nigeria we know how challenging this can be. In its place, the alternative is to carry out surveys. Using primarily donor funds two important surveys have been completed on TB in Nigeria in the past few years; one on the prevalence of TB and one on the prevalence of drug resistant tuberculosis. Despite the completion of these surveys - the reports have not been released! They are said to be awaiting sign-off by the Honourable Minister of Health. They have been awaiting sign off for over two years, waiting for a signature! So what could a survey show that would make it so difficult to release? Could it be that the surveys show that we have a much larger ...
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