Tuberculosis: Many Cases Undetected In Nigeria -WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that Nigeria still has a number of tuberculosis cases yet to be detected.

The health organisation made this public in the latest Global Tuberculosis Report, stating that out of 10 million people who fell ill with tuberculosis in 2017, only 6.4 million were officially recorded, leaving 3.6 million detected but not reported.

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Describing the epidemic as “the world’s deadliest infectious disease” the report noted that 10 countries accounted for 80 percent of this gap, with India, Indonesia, and Nigeria topping the list.

According to WHO, countries are not doing enough to meet the tuberculosis target by 2030 in spite of global efforts that averted about 54 million deaths since 2000.

However, the organisation through its director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus, urged political leaders gathering next week for the first-ever ‘United Nations High-level Meeting on TB’ to take decisive action, building on recent moves by the leaders of India, Rwanda, and South Africa.

“We have never seen such high-level political attention and understanding of what the world needs to do to end TB and drug-resistant TB.

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“We must capitalise on this new momentum and act together to end this terrible disease,” said Ghebreyesus.

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