Abuja, 24 March 2016 - Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March 2016. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Unite to End TB” in consonance with the global focus to sensitize governments and stakeholders on the huge gap of undetected tuberculosis (TB) cases globally. The overriding objective aims to encourage programmes to implement active case finding activities “to find and treat” missing cases of the disease.

Speaking at the commemoration event in Abuja, the Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole mentioned that “with low case detection of tuberculosis, no one is safe until we are able to find, and treat all the missing TB cases”. Additionally, he updated the nation on the latest progress aimed at fighting the scourge of TB.

Professor Adewole disclosed that the country’s efforts informed the increased funding to disease control in this year’s budget by the Federal Government, to especially address the challenges of low case detection, increasing resistance to anti-TB drugs and avert the negative effects of interactions between TB and HIV.

The World Health Organization (WHO) data estimates that every year, nine (9) million new TB cases are reported worldwide despite huge investments in health services in countries. In Nigeria, TB continues to be a major public health concern.

In his message at the occasion, Dr Rui Gama Vaz, the WHO Country Representative (WR) underscored the great efforts made by the Federal Ministry of Health to reduce the increasing trends of TB. Notwithstanding, he pointed out that the country still faces several challenges that require urgent actions.  “We need to use innovative approaches including: engaging civil society, the traditional and religious leaders, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, rolling out new diagnostic technics and adopting new tools for monitoring and evaluation among others”, Dr Vaz stated.

Continuing, he reminded governments at all levels and other stakeholders to the global theme of 2016 World TB Day which is ‘Unite to End TB’; to prompt actions to address the scourge of the disease. The WR pledged that WHO will continue to support the national TB control programme in all areas of required technical assistance to control the disease.

The highlight of the 2016 commemoration was the investiture of Her Excellency, the wife of the President of Nigeria, Mrs. Hajiya Aisha Buhari as the ‘Nigerian Tuberculosis Champion” and six (6) Nigerian dignitaries which included the Honourable Ministers of Environment, Agriculture and rural development, Education, Information and Culture and Power, Works and Housing. Others include the Chairman, Senate House committee on Health, and Chairman House committee on HIV/Aids, TB and malaria.

In her acceptance speech, the wife of the President, represented by the wife of the Executive Governor of Cross River state Dr Linda Ayada, promised to be a good TB Champion, and further committed to make remarkable impact in reducing the burden of TB in Nigeria especially amongst vulnerable populations, women and children.

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For more information, please contact:

Technical contacts:

Dr Rex Mpazanje
Tel: +234 803 638 9632
Email:    pazanjer [at] who.int (pazanjer[at]who[dot]int)
Dr Ayodele Awe
Tel: + 234  803 525 0215
Email:  awea [at] who.int (awea[at]who[dot]int)