Isaac Adewole, minister of health, has commissioned and equipped multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/XDR) wards in Ibadan, Oyo state on Monday, to flag off shorter MDR-TB treatment regimen in the country.
The centre will help many patients suffering from multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) get accommodation during the period of treatment.
Adewole said that the country has delivered the first equipped extensively drug-resistant ward in Nigeria and launched the shorter MDR treatment regimen.
“It is not the number of cases of TB that should bother us but that we are only able to detect about 1/6th of the cases,” the minister said.
“Henceforth the shorter regimen and new drugs (Delamanid and Bedaquilline) will be used for treatment of drug-resistant TB in Nigeria.
“We have adopted WHO guidelines on DRTB patient management & replaced the conventional 20 months with shorter 9 month regimen” said Adewole.
Nigeria is ranked first in Africa and only came behind India, Indonesia and China in the total TB burden, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2016 global tuberculosis report.
The WHO and IUATLD global project on drug resistance surveillance has found MDR-TB prevalence is > 4 percent among new TB cases in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
Charles Olalekan Mensah the managing director and chief operating officer (MD/COO), Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, said with this arrangement, Nigeria has met the WHO global guidelines for managing drug resistant TB.
“This is very significant in accelerating TB case finding in Nigeria. I must commend health ministry for putting tuberculosis on his agenda” -CR KNCV, Ineke Huitema.
Given the increasing trend toward globalisation, trans-national migration, and tourism, all countries are potential targets for outbreaks of MDR-TB.
