The Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis/Leprosy and Malaria (BACATMA), Dr. Sani Muhammad Dambam, has warned against taking unprocessed cow milk, saying many cases have been reported from the practice.
Dambam said this on Wednesday during the programme organised in collaboration with USAID Breakthrough ACTION Nigeria and other partners to mark this year’s World Tuberculosis Day at the General Hospital, Baraya, Bauchi.
He said, “We have noticed that Tuberculosis is very common among the Fulani herders because they drink cow milk and mostly unprocessed. They mostly get the disease from the cow,” he said.
The agency deployed both passive and active surveillance with over 700 diagnosis centres at the 20 local government areas of the state to ease the hardship being faced by the people.
“We know quietly alright that people are facing challenges of economic hardship, in that case we have put a measure in place to go to the community where samples are taken to the council headquarters.
According to the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Adamu Umar Sambo, said that Nigeria ranked 6th among the high-burden countries and first in Africa with a high burden for TB.
“Nigeria is among the top 10 countries that accounts for 77% of the Global Gap in TB case findings and contributes 9% to the Global Gap between TB incidence and notified cases.
In 2023 Bauchi State detected and notified 9,332 drug susceptible TB cases in 2023 as against 7,806 in 2022.
With an estimated TB target of 16,092 in 2023, the State had achieved a 57.9% performance in TB case notification. And out of the 7,730 new TB cases detected and registered for treatment in 2022, about 7,435 were successfully treated thereby achieving a 96% treatment success rate (TSR) at the end of 2023.
