US government through its Agency for International Development, USAID has in the past five years, supported Nigerian health officials to save the lives of more than five hundred and eighty-one thousand Nigerians with tuberculosis.
This figure is according to participants at a close out ceremony for the USAID funded Challenge TB activity.
Ekwi Ajide of our Abuja bureau, reports that fourteen focus states for TB Challenge including Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross Rivers, Enugu, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, and Rivers converged on Abuja to share the success stories from the forty million dollars activity.
According to USAID’S Mission Director, Stephen Haykin, in collaboration with the Government of Nigeria and other TB partners, Challenge TB worked to raise awareness, reduce stigma, improve health seeking behaviors among vulnerable Nigerians and provide technical support that helped close gaps in diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, preventing disease progression and strengthening service delivery platforms.
For the twenty-four years old Kasimu Yahaya, from Keffi, who said he was a student of Nasarawa State University in 2017 when he tested positive for TB and after six months of free treatment, gained total cured with the financial help of Challenge TB, expressed gratitude that he completed his education and is now a self-appointed advocate for TB awareness across Nasarawa state.
USAID had collaborated with the National TB Control Program since 2003, having invested more than two hundred and seven million dollars towards TB control and the support resulted in the establishment of more than three thousand new TB clinics, strengthening of diagnostic capability, training for health workers, and the expansion of control services into the private sector.
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