Kaduna records 32,297 tuberculosis cases

Kaduna recorded 32,297 tuberculosis cases in 2023, according to figures released by the state’s Ministry of Health, Wednesday.

State Commissioner for Health, Umma Kaltume-Ahmed, who disclosed this at a press briefing to mark the 2024 World Tuberculosis Day celebration in Kaduna, added that the cases of Tuberculosis detection in the state rose from 21,557 in 2022 to 32,297 in 2023.

The 2024 World TB Day theme is “Yes, We Can End TB,” its Slogan is: “No Gree For TB, Check Am O.”

“This represents a 49.8 per cent increase in 2021 compared to 2022.

“This case detection rate represents 159 per cent of the state TB case detection target.

”This shows a significant improvement in case finding compared to 53 per cent obtained in 2022.

“And it reflects the improved support the State TB programme received from the State Government and our development partners,” the commissioner said.

According to Kaltume-Ahmed, the 2024 theme was a follow-up call to the commitment made by global leaders at the UN high-level meeting on TB in New York in 2020, adding that it was to support the target to end the TB epidemic by the year 2030 via supporting the scale-up of TB access to prevention.

Others are diagnosis and treatment, sustainable financing including research and ending stigma and discrimination against people affected by TB.

The commissioner added that tuberculosis remained one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers.

“Each day, over 4100 people lose their lives to TB, and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.

“Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 66 million lives since 2000.

 “However, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of progress made in the fight to end TB. For the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020.

“This conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve global leaders’ commitments to end TB.

“This is especially critical in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put End TB progress at risk, and to ensure equitable access to prevention and care in line with WHO’s drive towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.”

According to her, the state’s treatment success rate is about 98.4 per cent indicating that the diagnosed cases of TB are being managed successfully.

TB/HIV collaboration in the state has been remarkable. 100 per cent of people living with HIV (PLHIV) are screened for TB, and all those co-infected with TB are placed on anti-TB, ART and CPT.