The Minister of Health, Professor
Onyebuchi Chukwu has said that the federal Government expended N430
million within the last 10 months on the control and treatment of
Tuberculosis in Nigeria.
Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu
who made the revealation in Kano during the commissioning of Drug
Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment Centre , Infectious Disease Hospital in
Kano noted that the collaborative effort by the two tier Government,
and International donor Agencies is yielding right dividend. Professor
Onyebuchi Chukwu who was represented by a Director in the ministry, Mr
Joshua Osibanye stated the multilateral effort was sequel to UNO
statistics that ranked Nigeria 10th among high TB burden country
globally.
The minister said that the World Health Organization
(WHO) 2012 report estimated that no fewer than 3,491 MDR TB cases
occurred in Nigeria annually, explaining that MDR-TB is a severe form of
TB that are resistant to the conventional treatment.
According
to the minister, “MDR-TB its more expensive to treat in a specialized
centres like the one been commissioned today, and it also takes a longer
time for the treatment to be completed than the ordinary TB”. Professor
Onyebuchi Chukwu however stated that as part of conscious effort to
address the menace of the MDR-TB, the federal ministry of Health has
established 4 state of the art reference laboratories and 7 treatment
centres across the country, adding that “we have also adopted newest
technology for the diagnosis of drug resistant TB.
The minister
noted that Kano centre like few other in the country is in fulfillment
of the commitment of the Jonathan led administration in providing
effective health care system to halt and reverse disease burden in the
country and making Nigeria one of the strongest twentieth economies in
the world through a healthy workforce. Professor Onyebuchi
further assures that his ministry in collaboration with donor partners
will continue to provide the necessary funds and technical support for
the control; of TB and other diseases of health importance like malaria,
HIV/AIDS and vaccine preventable diseases for the achievement of
millennium Development Goals by 2015.
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