AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), a global non-profit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide, has charged the Nigerian and other governments globally on the need for improved funding of Tuberculosis (TB) to save humanity from millions of lives being lost yearly to the scourge.
The group gave this charge in a statement issued by it to mark the World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24 to honour the millions of lives lost to TB while renewing the urgency around prevention, treatment, and research for the world’s deadliest infectious disease, which has been a crisis for many decades.
As part of its efforts to end the disease, the AHF is organizing “Yes! We Can End TB” events globally on World TB Day to support everyone affected by TB and encourage world leaders to do their part in ending this disease that is 100% preventable and treatable.
Commenting on the group’s commitment to TB eradication and the activities lined up for the 2023 TB Day, the AHF Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy, Terri Ford, said: “AHF has made TB a top priority with efforts focused on educating our staff and clients, screening for TB in our clinics, and prioritizing, preventing, and treating HIV/TB co-infection, the number one cause of death for people living with HIV.
“As a preventable and treatable disease, world leaders must do more to end TB, and we’re calling on them to do just that on World TB Day and beyond.
“With our World TB Day theme ‘Yes! We Can End TB,’ AHF urges all governments and public health institutions to do their part to ensure TB research, prevention, and treatment programs are fully funded and supported. We all must do more to finally stop TB worldwide, particularly in lower-income countries”, Ford added.
In his remarks, Country Program Director, AHF Nigeria, Dr. Echey Ijezie, stressed that “ending TB for us in Nigeria must come with intensified level of case finding and for patients who show up in hospitals to embrace treatment, which is free across health facilities in the country.
“Importantly, we must increase the funding available to TB, improve the level of education and awareness about TB, as well as engage pointedly, the rising incidences of stigma related to TB while not forgetting that TB is curable.
“Nigeria’s situation deserves urgent attention as the World Health Organization (WHO) lists the nation among the ten countries accounting for 64% of the global gap in TB case finding, with India, Indonesia and Nigeria accounting for almost half of the total gap”, Ijezie added.
