A Civil Society Organisation, Policy Alert, has called for the creation of a separate line for Tuberculosis in the 2025 budget of Akwa Ibom State.
The Programme Director of Policy Alert, Koko Udo, made the call during an advocacy visit to the Director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics at the State Ministry of Health, Dr Iboro Udo, for the implementation of the FundTB Project.
The programme held in partnership with Palladium Group and supported by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, is one of the many advocacy programmes calling for the introduction of Tuberculosis as a stand-alone item in the budget.
Udo described Tuberculosis as a major public health concern in Nigeria and Akwa Ibom State and harped on the need to secure adequate resources to prevent and treat the disease effectively.
Udo, while admitting that some international donor agencies may be doing intervention programmes for TB in the state, queried the fate of the patients if the organisations withdrew their support.
He stressed that the state government should be proactive enough to include TB in the budget to bridge the yawning 70 percent funding gap required to manage tuberculosis interventions and ensure enhanced as well as sustainable funding even if the international donors pull out.
He decried the current practice of lumping TB with other infectious diseases, saying that such makes it ineffective to manage, difficult to track progress, leads to poor health outcomes for TB patients, and the likelihood of increasing multiple drug resistance (MDR) among those not properly treated.
“Our visit is to specifically ask for the creation of a stand-alone budget line item for TB intervention in the state, instead of the current practice where TB is lumped with other infectious diseases, making it ineffective to manage and difficult to track progress, worst off poor health outcomes for TB patient and the likelihood of increasing multiple drug resistant (MDR) among those not properly treated.
“Available data from the Akwa Ibom State 2024 approved budget and the last two quarterly budget performance reports show no line-item budget for TB intervention and no releases within the reported period, respectively. Furthermore, the State Health Insurance is yet to extend coverage to TB patients in health insurance schemes to ameliorate their healthcare burden.” He said
Responding, the Director, Iboro Udo who was represented by Dr George Ekanem described the visit as timely as the 2025 annual operation plan was ongoing promising that TB would be included in the 2025 budget of the state.
He, however, encouraged them to take the advocacy further to the Budget and Economic Planning, House of Assembly, and the State Executive Council among others for greater impact saying that without the buy-in of those stakeholders mentioned, the input of TB in the budget may not even see the light of the day.
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