The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, has established local organizations network that will seek to increase the level of tuberculosis cases detected and treated in Nigeria over the
next five years.
Ekwi Ajide reports that the Agency announced this during the 2020 World Tuberculosis Day in Abuja.
The networks funded with forty-five million dollars are divided into three regions covering eighteen States where data shows the burden of tuberculosis to be highest.
The Agency’s Mission Director, Mr Stephen Haykin disclosed that with the new awards, USAID is making a major commitment to reducing and ultimately eradicating tuberculosis in Nigeria.
According to the USAID Mission Director of the new network, the key will be reducing the number of undetected cases, while getting those who test positive to free treatment as tuberculosis is completely curable.
According to him, the first thirty million dollars award will establish a Tuberculosis Local Organizations Network Regions one and two in fourteen States to be implemented by KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Nigeria.
The second, fifteen million dollars award, will go to the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria which covers four states in Region three.
He said under both awards, KNCV and IHVN will work to rapidly improve tuberculosis case detection and treatment in communities using a differentiated model approach while strengthening resilient and sustainable systems for tuberculosis control until 2025.
Region one include Bauchi, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba States.
While Region two are Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Imo, and Rivers and region three covers Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Osun States.
USAID has collaborated with the National Tuberculosis Control Programme since 2003, having invested more than two hundred and seven million dollars towards tuberculosis control.
The support has resulted in the establishment of more than three thousand new tuberculosis clinics, strengthening of diagnostic capability, training for health workers, and the expansion of control services into the private sector.
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