Nigeria records 420 deaths daily from Tuberculosis even as the country has the second largest burden of TB in Africa and fourth in the world.
This was revealed yesterday during the Public Private Mix (PPM) summit for Tuberculosis control in Nigeria held in Lagos.
The summit was an appraisal of the private sector involvement in TB control in Nigeria with specific reference to the social investment in TB management by the Agbami parties comprising NNPC, Chevron, Famfa Oil, Petrobras and Statoil.
The coordinator, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, Adebola Lawanson, said the TB prevalence rate in Nigeria is alarming and many people were nonchalant about it.
“TB kills more people than plane crash and we can put in place measure to safeguard the aviation industry, we need to checkmate the spread of TB”, she said.
According to her, there are over 300,000 undiagnosed TB patients even as three in four patients are not on treatment.
She explained further that each of the undiagnosed TB patients is capable of infecting 10 to 15 people.
