By Muhammad Jamilu Abubakar
Gombe State Government has hosted the 2025 Annual Review Meeting of the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, bringing together health officials, development partners and programme managers to review progress and strengthen efforts to control the diseases in Nigeria.
Declaring the meeting open in Gombe, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, reaffirmed the commitment of the Gombe State Government to ending tuberculosis, leprosy and Buruli ulcer. He described the meeting as an important platform to assess achievements, identify challenges and agree on practical solutions to improve disease control.
The review meeting brought together officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, the National TB, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, the World Health Organization, Global Fund, donor agencies and state programme managers from across the country.
Dr. Dahiru disclosed that Gombe State has expanded access to TB services, with about 65 per cent of public and private health facilities now providing TB treatment. He said the state has 25 WHO-approved TB diagnostic tools, including GeneXpert, Truenat and portable digital X-ray machines distributed across local government areas.
According to him, TB case detection in Gombe has improved significantly, rising from 1,763 cases in 2020 to 4,537 cases in 2024. He added that by the third quarter of 2025, the state had already recorded 5,247 TB cases, representing over half of the estimated cases, with treatment coverage expected to exceed 80 per cent by the end of the year.
The Commissioner also said TB preventive treatment has been scaled up, noting that while only about 200 contacts were enrolled annually between 2020 and 2022, more than 4,500 contacts have been placed on preventive treatment in 2025 alone. He commended the Federal Ministry of Health and development partners for their continued support.
In his welcome address, the Director of Public Health at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Godwin Ntadom, represented by the Acting National Coordinator of the programme, Dr. Clement Olufemi, said Nigeria has recorded notable progress in TB case notification over the past year. However, he warned that TB remains a major public health challenge due to the large number of undetected cases.
He disclosed that every hour, about 24 Nigerians develop active TB, including three children, while three Nigerians die from the disease, which is preventable and curable. He said the World Health Organization has set 2030 as the target to end the TB epidemic, stressing that achieving this goal will require innovative approaches, integration of services and improved resource mobilisation.
Dr. Olufemi also noted that Nigeria still records over 2,000 new leprosy cases annually and remains among the top ten countries reporting Buruli ulcer cases. He expressed concern over declining skills for diagnosing and treating leprosy and Buruli ulcer, despite achieving leprosy elimination at the national level.
The Gombe State Programme Manager for Tuberculosis and Leprosy, Pharmacist Aliyu Adamu Abdullahi, said the TB programme in the state has recorded success due to strong support from partners, especially the World Health Organization, which provided 25 molecular diagnostic tools and other equipment.
He urged residents with cough lasting more than two weeks, night sweats, fever or weight loss to visit any approved health facility for free TB testing and treatment. He added that about 60 per cent of public and private health facilities in Gombe State are equipped to test and treat tuberculosis.
The three-day review meeting is expected to produce recommendations aimed at accelerating efforts to end tuberculosis, leprosy and Buruli ulcer in Nigeria by 2030.
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