Agency The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has announced that Nigeria’s National Tuberculosis Programme has surpassed its targets. This was made known by the Director of Public Health Dr Chukwuma Anyaike in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday, in Abuja, while highlighting the programme’s journey historic feat and the challenges ahead. He described the feat as a remarkable achievement attributable to scaling up evidence-based diagnostic innovations.
NAN reports that on Friday, Nigeria launched the Private Sector Strategy to End Tuberculosis, which was organised by StopTB Nigeria in Lagos. The theme of the event was ‘It’s time for the private sector to join the fight against tuberculosis’. During the event, it was noted that despite progress in case identification and governmental efforts, significant challenges remain, impacting the country’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.
It was noted that the strategy calls for private sector involvement in order to raise 25 million dollars for TB initiatives, which would be matched by government and development partners. The Public Health Director said that this unprecedented success, however, was now being threatened by a dire shortage of diagnostic cartridges and TB medicines. He said that this could potentially roll back all achievements and risk the interruption of essential programming by September.
According to Anyaike, the combined efforts of the public and private sectors, along with in.