The Nasarawa state Commissioner for Health Mr. Ahmed Yahaya, Tuesday, said the state has detected 12, 951 tuberculosis (TB) cases from 2016-2020 across the state.
He stated this in an event to commemorate the 2021 tuberculosis in Lafia.
The commissioner explained that 2,927 out of the discovered TB patients representing 23 per cent in the state have both TB and HIV infections, while 977 out of these cases are children between 0-14 years representing eight per cent.
He explained further that 281 representing 2.5 per cent of the patients have drugs resistance TB, but the state bought Genexpert machine capable of detecting Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the organism that causes TB in humans.
He said the machine can also detect whether the organism is susceptible or resistant to the first line anti TB drugs.
He explained that 10 out of the 13 local government areas (LGAs) have the Genexpert machine and it is responsible for more than 91 per cent TB test in the state.
The commissioner therefore, expressed optimism that TB treatment in the state has 86 per cent success rate.
He equally commended the efforts of development partners for their intervention and promised that the governor Abdullahi Sule-led administration would continue would do everything possible to ensure total elimination of TB.
He therefore appealed to members of the public with TB-related symptoms to avail themselves for test in order help in the eradication of the scorge in the state.
