Some experts have called on the Nigerian government to pay serious attention to Tuberculosis (TB), stressing that it is more dangerous than the dreaded coronavirus.
The experts made the comment at the Pre-World TB media briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, March 18.
Speaking at the briefing, Country Representative Officer, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Nigeria, Dr. Betrand Odume, lamented the country’s high TB burden, saying 18 Nigerians die from the disease on an hourly basis.
According to Odume, “Despite significant progress over the last decades, tuberculosis remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease and requires acceleration of efforts to end the epidemic in Nigeria and globally.
“Each day, nearly 4,500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
“In 2018, about 1.4 million people globally died of TB-related causes including over 205,000 children. And over 95 per cent of TB deaths occur in low and middle-income countries especially Africa. Nigeria is one of the countries with a high burden of the disease globally.”