Upsurge in TB cases reported

Nigeria has had an upsurge of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the last 10 years, with more than 200,000 people suffering from the disease every year, its health minister was reported as saying this week. 'The Daily Trust', a newspaper in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, quoted Health Minister Alphonsus Nwosu as saying on Monday that 27,000 new TB cases were detected last year. Nwosu was speaking at a workshop in Abuja on the sustainability of tuberculosis and leprosy control services in Nigeria. "Over the last 10 years, there has been an upsurge in the incidence of this disease," he said. "Poverty, economic recession and malnutrition are contributing factors to this trend." He added that "recent increases in human migration have rapidly increased the infection rate of previously uninfected communities". According to Nwosu, the emergence of HIV infection and multi-drug resistance (MDR) has also contributed to the upsurge in TB, which kills more HIV-positive people than any other infectious disease in Nigeria. Noting that tuberculosis was curable, Nwosu stated that the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) strategy adopted in Nigeria was recommended by the WHO and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) as a global approach to the treatment of TB. More than 21 states are implementing DOTS in Nigeria but the coverage rate is below 15 percent, he said. With regard to leprosy, he said, more than 80,000 patients had been cured with the Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT), and that registered cases of the disease had drpped from 250,000 in 1988 to about 7,000 today.