Posted on: Mon 09-09-2024

A medical expert and an Associate Professor of Public Health at the Community Medicine and Primary Healthcare Department of the Birmingham University in Nasarawa State has attributed the burden of tuberculosis cases being born by Nigeria to factors relating to her population size and other existing social conditions.

Adekoya who is also a Research Lead at the Light Consortium, a six-year Global Health Research initiative, funded by UK-Aid, said that beyond having the highest number of tuberculosis cases in Africa, Nigerian men are most effected by the disease than their female counterpart.

“As you are aware Nigeria has the highest burden of tuberculosis in Africa and is among the top three countries with highest burden of the disease across the world. Unfortunately, a lot of information around tuberculosis is well disseminated especially in our rural communities.

“For instance, many people do not know that treatment for tuberculosis are meant to be free in the country,” he said.

LIGHT Consortium is a six-year cross-disciplinary global health research programme funded by UK aid, led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), and working with partners in Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and the UK.

The research aims to provide new evidence on the effectiveness of different gender-sensitive pathways and approaches to health.

Speaking to THISDAY during the workshop organised by the Light Consortium in Abuja which ended over the weekend, Adekoya revealed that part of the factors fueling increase in tuberculosis disease in Nigeria is the share size her population and the congested nature of the semi-urban neighborhoods.

Adekoya said: “I think one of the biggest factors is our population, living conditions and other social determinants of health that affects our population.

“I give an example in our Federal Capital Territory in Abuja. Here, a lot people live in semi-urban settlements in outskirts of Abuja where the houses are congested with people living in shanties and make-shift buildings without proper ventilation.

“This leads to the spread of diseases and help to increase rate of infection of diseases like tuberculosis,” Adekoya said.

The university don said that though healthcare facilities have been striving to contain the health challenges there are lots of rooms for improvement.

Regarding the demography of the spread and impact of tuberculosis, Adekoya said that findings by the research team of Light Consortium has confirmed that more men are usually affected by the disease than women.

“We have found out that through the research we have conducted that more men are affected by tuberculosis and that fewer men access healthcare services,” he said

Adekoya further said that one of the key foci of an ongoing research by Light Consortium is to determine why men are having the higher burden of tuberculosis and why they are accessing health care at rates lower than the women and children.

However, he said that among initial findings are that a lot of men have health seeking behaviours that does not promote care services for tuberculosis.

According to him, most men are engaged daily in the pursuit of income for their families and are hooked to such activities that help provide means of livelihood to the extent that forgo taking care of their health situations.

Adekoya said that what the Light Consortium is doing as part of its advocacy efforts is to help create policies and programmes that can help influence gender transformative approach to tuberculosis care services, focusing on men.

He also said that the capacity training workshop for health journalists was meant to provide them with some basic overview of tuberculosis disease and its place as major public health concern in Nigeria.

The medical expert said that one of the key aims of the workshop was to find a collaborative means of sending messages across to the public on the current situation of things in relation to tuberculosis disease and interventions being made to control its spread in Nigeria.

SOURCE: THIS DAY NEWSPAPER

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