To fast-track efforts toward eliminating Tuberculosis by 2030, stakeholders said there is a need for strong political will to be exhibited in the country.
The stakeholders made the call on Thursday, at a Pre-United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB national stakeholders consultation organised by Stop TB Partnership in Nigeria and stakeholders in Abuja.
The 2023 UNHLM on TB will take place during the UN General Assembly high-level meeting slated for September 22, 2023.
It will be five years after the first UNHLM on TB, held in September 2018, and it will serve as an opportunity for a comprehensive review of the political declaration made by heads of state and governments at the meeting.
The theme of 2023 UNHLM on TB is ‘Advancing science, finance, and innovation, and their benefits, to urgently end the global TB epidemic by ensuring equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment, and care’.
The UNHLM on TB is a significant political meeting and an opportunity to raise the political priority of TB.
Speaking with newsmen, the Board Vice-chair, Stop TB Partnership, Geneva, Austin Obiefuna, said the UNHLM on TB would result in commitment and political declaration on TB from heads of state, government, and development partners on global response to the disease.
Obiefuna said, “The meeting is one of the highest decision-making bodies. Leaders will be making a lot of political declarations around TB and those political declarations are the targets we will be using to hold the public sector, especially the political leaders, accountable.
“Most importantly, we need to adapt the declarations and we need to find moderate ways of interpreting it so that people can understand it and what it means for them and how to implement it. Countries need to work together to understand what is peculiar to their country.”
On meeting the 2030 target of eliminating TB, he said Nigeria needs to be ambitious and ensure that everyone is involved.
“Countries need to be ambitious, countries need to adapt to innovations and not remain in their old ways of doing things. We should not leave anyone behind, but bring everyone on board, and engage everyone including the vulnerable population,” he added.
The Executive Secretary of Stop TB Partnership Nigeria, Mayowa Joel, said Nigeria made a lot of progress towards ending TB since 2018, but more still needs to be done.
“We have made tremendous progress such that we have been able to document our success stories.
“To end TB by 2030, we need to do more. We are happy with the new administration and we hope that the new administration will be able to put in the necessary resources and political commitment to be able to end TB by 2030,” he said.
He noted that the UNHLM on TB is an opportunity for global leaders, heads of state, parliamentarians, civil society organisations, and stakeholders to agree on a common political declaration with targets that will guide efforts to end TB by 2030.
On his part, the Director of Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike said Nigeria is on track to eliminating TB.
Anyaike, who was represented by the Deputy Director and Head, Child and Adolescent TB & Leprosy Control Programme, Dr. Urhioke Ochuko said, “As we all know, after the last UNHLM, we have made progress in our TB response, case finding, innovations, funding, TB preventive treatment and even leadership and governance on TB control.
“However, there are areas to improve on and this meeting will help us to plan. We still have some areas to look at as we move on to the next stage of TB response. We know that we are not doing well in the area of child TB control but we have made progress in our preventive TB response but we need to do more.”
