The First Lady, Aisha Buhari, on Wednesday solicited for support from development partners and relevant stakeholders to end the spread of tuberculosis in Nigeria.
Buhari made the call in Abuja when she received a delegation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Members of ”Stop TB Partnership Nigeria” during a stakeholders advocacy meeting to End Tuberculosis and Non-Communicable Diseases in Nigeria.
Represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, the first lady said though, ending tuberculosis in a country as big as Nigeria was a huge task, there was need for multi-sectoral and multi-lateral support to achieve it.
“Nigeria faces a huge burden of tuberculosis. I hope your visit to Nigeria is not to reinstate what we already know, but to assess the progress we made so far and to support us to do better.
“Because, TB awareness in the country is still a major challenge, I have been using both the traditional and social media to create more awareness on TB” she said.
Buhari expressed confidence that ending tuberculosis required the cooperationand understanding of stakeholders.
She therefore promised to push for the implementation of the recommendations reached at the end of the meeting.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehinire, said the federal government has put in place, measures to tackle TB through various intervention programme.
Ehinire said, tackling tuberculosis required multi-sectoral approach to end the scourge.
He said, in spite of the federal government’s efforts to end tuberculosis, the disease remain one of the major health challenges in the country.
“Our focus is to provide resources to dictate and treat TB patients over the years, so we have to work together to end tuberculosis in Nigeria” he said.
Also speaking, the Representative of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria Prof. Lovett Lawson, said the group was working with other stakeholders to reduce the spread of tuberculosis by the year 2030.
Lawson commended the efforts of the first lady for engaging the governors wives to join the advocacy against the spread of tuberculosis in Nigeria.
He therefore called for an uncompromising effort on the part of government to stop TB(NAN).
