Kano State Government has revealed that an unprecedented 8,277 patients have been placed on Tuberculosis (TB) treatment, within the past week.
The government said this figure represents the highest quarterly TB notification ever recorded in Nigeria.
Speaking at the 2023 National TB Testing Week commemoration, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, the Commissioner of Health, on Monday, said Kano is one of Nigeria’s most populous states and among the five with high TB burdens, grapples with a TB burden of 34,547 cases.
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He said, “Kano State being the most populous state in Nigeria and one of the five high TB burden states, the TB burden stood at 34,547 which represents expected notification of 8,637 TB patients per quarter and I am happy to inform you that just last week we placed a total of 8,277 TB patients which represents 96% of the total burden have been placed on TB treatment which is the highest quarterly TB notification ever in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is ranked 1st in Africa and 6th in the world among the 30 high TB-burdened countries. The 2022 National TB incident stood at 467,000 while a total of 218,000 (47%) people were notified and placed on TB treatment, with 249,000 (53%) undetected TB cases.
“According to the 2022 Global TB report over 72,000,000 lives were saved between 2000 and 2021 through joint efforts to End TB worldwide. Also, from the report the number of people worldwide that fell ill due to TB was 10.6 million, with 1.6 million deaths including 218,000 people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.”
