Adamawa Recorded 50 TB Drug Resistance Cases In 2019 – Official

Adamawa Government recorded over 50 Tuberculosis (TB) Drug Resistance cases in 2019,
Dr Boniface Gundiri, the Programme Manager, Adamawa TB and Leprosy Control, said.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Yola that in 2019, the programme was worried over the number of cases recorded in 2019, describing the situation as “alarming”.

Read Also: Insecurity: Special Forces Arrive In Southern Kaduna

“Based on statistics in the year under review, we detected and diagnosed a total of 3,156 drug sensitive TB cases.
“We also diagnosed 52 per cent TB cases and 48 per cent remain undetectable.”

Gundiri said that when the statistics was presented to the state’s Commissioner for Health, it was rated as alarming and a strategy was evolved up to tackle the situation.

On the figure of deaths from TB cases, he said he could not remember the exact number but that many TB patients in the state lost their lives.

He pointed out that one undiagnosed TB patient was capable of infecting 10 healthy people, which made the spread of the disease worrisome.

The programme manager said that meetings were held twice with the Wife of the state Governor, Hajiya Lami Fintiri, on how to intervene and control the spread of the disease, especially the undiagnosed cases.

He disclosed that government at the state level in collaboration with some international and local NGOs were committed to controlling the spread of the disease.