Jumoke Olasunkanmi
As part of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr.Tedros Ghebreyesus, has called on world leaders to commit to a five-year plan to end tuberculosis (TB) globally.
Dr. Ghebreyesus, who said the UNGA meeting for Friday was focused on tuberculosis, declared that it was unacceptable for a disease as preventable and curable as tuberculosis to account for 1.6 million deaths in 2021 alone; that is around 4,000 deaths per day.
He added that global efforts to combat TB have saved over 74 million lives since 2000 but the COVID-19 pandemic, alongside conflicts and inequities around the world, has reversed years of progress which is why the WHO is urging world leaders to come together to help rid the world of the deadly disease.
According to Dr. Ghebreyesus, the WHO has come up with five concrete plans for the next five years to help achieve a tuberculosis-free world. The first of which is to reach 90 percent of people with TB prevention and care, and provide social benefits packages to people suffering from TB to prevent financial hardships.
He added that it is important for all countries to use the WHO-recommended Rapid Test as the first method of diagnosis and license at least one new Tuberculosis vaccine.
To achieve this goal, he emphasised the need to research more on TB care, close the funding gap, as well as address the main drives of TB.
“To accomplish this goal, we need to close the funding gaps for TB care and invest in research and innovation. At the same time, we need to address the drivers of TB; poverty, malnutrition, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, poor living and working conditions, stigma, discrimination and more,” he said.
Nigeria is ranked first in Africa and sixth country in the world with the highest number of people suffering from tuberculosis statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show that every year, about 245,000 Nigerians die from the disease, and about 590,000 new cases occur.
