Lucica Ditiu, the executive director of Stop TB partnership Geneva, has decried the slow pace and poor conditions of tuberculosis (TB) work in Nigeria.
Ms Ditiu disclosed this in a goodwill message in Lagos at a dinner with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the private sector community on Domestic Resource Mobilisation to end TB in Nigeria.
Stop TB partnership Nigeria organised the event as part of the High-level Mission on Domestic Resource Mobilisation to end TB in Nigeria.
Ms Ditiu decried that TB had not received the required attention despite all the different languages in Nigeria. She lamented that being a curable disease, TB was still killing people daily, “perhaps because it doesn’t affect rich people.”
Similarly, Queen Ogbuji-Ladipo, the organisation’s board chair, noted that “TB kills more than HIV/AIDS” and that Nigeria was among the 30 high TB burden countries worldwide.
Ms Ogbuji-Ladipo, who lamented that the country was sixth globally and second in Africa, noted that this was unacceptable as TB was both preventable and treatable.
She, however, noted that there were limited financial resources for TB response in Nigeria, saying only 31 per cent was available for implementation, leaving a gap of 69 per cent. According to her, it will be difficult for TB eradication to reach its goal with the gap level.
She asked that all hands be on deck in the discussion on ways to mobilise resources to achieve a desired sustainable result.
(NAN)
