Pulse.ng : World Tuberculosis Day: Kaduna govt. Records 21,557 cases in 2022.

Agency Report

By Stella Kabruk

The Kaduna State Government on Thursday said it has recorded 21,557 confirmed cases of tuberculosis in 2022.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Mohammed-Baloni disclosed during a press conference to mark World Tuberculosis day in Kaduna.

Baloni said a total of 2,186,945 persons were screened for TB out of which 242,945 persons were identified as presumptives and tested with 21,557 confirmed with TB in 2022.

"This is against 10,901 cases in 2021 thereby achieving a 98% increase in TB case finding and achieved a 106 per cent target achievement for the year.

She said each day, over 4100 people lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000.

She added that,the World Tuberculosis Day is observed to raise public awareness and understanding about the world’s deadliest infectious killer - Tuberculosis (TB) and its devastating health, social and economic impact on people around the world.

According to her, this year , the Kaduna state government together with the Global community is marking this special Day with the theme – Yes! We can end TB! – aims to inspire hope and encourage high-level leadership, increased investments, faster uptake of new World Health Organisations recommendations, adoption of innovations, accelerated action and multisectoral collaboration to combat the TB epidemic.

"The year 2023 is going to be critical and should be championed as the ‘year of hope’ to get full support, attention, and energy for a collective ‘YES! We Can End TB’. The theme brings attention to TB and our collective power to end TB by 2030 and therefore reach the Sustainable Development Goals.

"However, the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown great promise with increased TB case detection across board. This has given renewed hope that with increased commitment and resource mobilization, we can eliminate TB.

More investment will save millions more lives, accelerating the end of the TB epidemic.

"This is a call to build on the fantastic work done in 2022 by many High Burden TB Countries to recover from the impact of COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring access to new diagnostics, new treatment regimens, digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) for the TB response. It centres on the increased engagement of those affected by TB, communities and civil society that is leading the movement towards ending this disease.

"We also achieved 100 per cent patient enrolment rate. This is reflective of the improved support the State TB program is receiving from the State Government and our development partners.

She added that the number of facilities providing TB services (service coverage) has been scaled up to 78 per cent from 68 per cent in 2022 across the entire state.

" The aim is to ensure every facility is providing TB services in the state.

According to her, treatment success rate for the state is excellent with about 98.5 per cent of the TB cases diagnosed managed successfully.

" Tuberclosis /HIV collaboration in the state have been excellent. 100 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) are screened for TB and all those co-infected with TB are placed on anti-TB, ART and CPT.

"11,325 eligible contacts of TB patients were placed on TB preventive treatment (TPT)."

"Kaduna state has also been recognized by the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme as; The Best State Programme of the year, Best State in Data Management, Second Most Improve State in case finding and State with improvement in Case finding above 35% in 2022.

The Commissioner noted that several strategies are in place by the present administration in line with the FMoH to improve the TB indices in the state ranging from; Active TB case finding through targeted outreaches, House-to-house TB case search, screening of all hospital attendees in secondary and tertiary health facilities in the state for TB, private health facilities involvement in TB case identification, engagement of nutrition clinics to improve childhood TB case diagnosis, provision of free childhood and adult Chest X-ray for clinical TB diagnosis.

Others included Provision of one-stop-shop for PLHIV infected by TB, Integration of presumptive TB case identification into all routine state activities in the PHCD Board.,engagement of health facilities not providing TB services to improve presumptive TB case identification.

She added that 19 Gene Xpert sites are available in the state, this is in addition to the 148 AFB Microscopy sites across the 23 LGAs of the state to aid diagnosis and management of TB. There are plans ongoing to position ten (10) more Gene Xpert Machines to increase coverage.

She said there are currently 1,174 facilities both public and private that are providing TB services across the state.

The Commissioner call on resident to avail themselves of this opportunity and get tested when coughing for two weeks or more and if confirmed to have the disease, to be rest assured that the disease is curable and treatment is free of charge.

"The fight against TB is a collective one. I call on all well-meaning residents of Kaduna state, Public and Private Organizations to join Kaduna State Government in Investing to End TB because it is achievable and “YES! WE CAN END TB”. (NAN)