The National Agency for AIDS (NACA) has revealed that Nigeria has the third highest tuberculosis (TB) burden in the world with 574,600 cases or 338 per 100,000 of the country’s 170 million population. About 22 per cent of the patients also have Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
NACA stated: “According to the current national statistics on HIV, an estimated 3.5 million persons are HIV positive, while close to one million are on treatment.
“So far, Nigeria occupies the unenviable global position in terms of the disease burden for both diseases. Nigeria is the second amongst the highest HIV-burdened countries in the world and the third among the highest TB-burdened globally. Added to this burden is the fact that of the number of cases identified with TB, 22 per cent were found to also have HIV as well, thus compounding the existing disease burden.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) lists Nigeria among the 20 countries with the highest absolute burden of disease, the others being Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mozambique, Myanmar, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, South Africa, Thailand, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Viet Nam.
