No fewer than 259 children between the age group of 0-14 years-old were affected with Tuberculosis in Nasarawa state in 2019 this constitutes with 10o/o of the total TB cases detected across the state.

Consequently, about 12,733 TB cases from the year 2015-2019 with 21 per cent of those having both TB and HIV infections, adding that the treatment success rate for all patients enrolled in 2018 was 88 o/o.

The state commissioner of health pharmacy Ahmed Yahaya dropped the hint at a press conference to mark the World Tuberculosis day in Lafia, the Nasarawa state capital on Tuesday.

His words: “About 259 children of the age group from 0-14 years were detected with TB last year 2019. The TB disease has a serious negative impact on the generally.

“From the state and national statistics, the age group that is most infected with TB is from 15-55years which is the economically productive group in any society.”

While expressing worry over the high increase of TB in the state, he said the state is currently put at 63 (2.3 o/o of total TB cases for the year) for the year 2019.

According to him, those patients were already on treatment in both the community and the treatment centre, noting that Nasarawa state has a Drug Resistant TB treatment Center in ERCC Hospital, Alushi which is a 10-bed space facility for only 10 patients at a time.

He added that the first drug resistant TB patient that was admitted in the centre was a 13-year-old boy that started the short term regime of 9 months on 19 of July 2017.

According to the health commissioner, governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state has budgeted the sum of N18,000,000 naira in the 2020 budget for TB programme in the state, adding that the ministry works in collaboration with partners to reduce to the barest minimum cases of TB in the state.

He, however, applauded the funding and technical partners for their contributions in the system strengthening particularly in TB control in the state.

He said, “The state government will not relent on its efforts to provide good quality and affordable health services to its citizen, especially for TB patients in the state.”