Kingsley Nwezeh and Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
US-CDC representative in Nigeria, Dr. Bethrand Odume released the statistics yesterday in Abuja at the pre-World TB Day press briefing with the theme “It’s time!” and slogan “To end TB in Nigeria ”. “We are looking at how to come about filling this gap. For this approach, the government must be there. One missing gap in Nigeria is that the private sector is not really coming up and that is where the Stop TB partnership in Nigeria comes in,” he said
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole said yesterday that HIV/AIDS remained a threat in spite of huge financial commitments made by government for the eradication of the disease. “This represents about 3 million people living with HIV. HIV, therefore, remains a persistent threat to the health of our people, straining the already weak health care system and compromising past developmental gains, especially in the areas of maternal and under-five mortality”,The minister stated that “the first case of AIDS in Nigeria was reported in 1986. Since then, the epidemic has grown steadily from 1.8 per cent in 1991 to 3.8 per cent in 1993, 4.5 per cent in 1995, 5.
and what is your job sir as the health minister these are areas you must tackle urgently