The Nigerian Thoracic Society has called for collaborative efforts between public health officials, patients, and their communities, stressing that it is essential to winning the fight against the disease.
The body noted that community engagement and outreach are essential to improving outcomes for TB patients.
The President of the society, Musa Babashani, made the call in a statement made available to newsmen, in commemoration of the 2024 World Tuberculosis Day.
The 2024 World TB Day was celebrated on March 24, with the theme, ‘’Yes! We can end TB!’
Tuberculosis as a communicable disease that affects the lungs and is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which spreads through the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes, spits, or laughs with mouth open.
WHO revealed that TB remains one of the world’s top infectious killer diseases with more than 10 million cases and one million deaths recorded annually.
According to the global health body, Nigeria has the highest burden of TB in Africa and ranks sixth among the 30 countries globally with the highest burden of the disease.
