Borno’s Silent Battle: Tuberculosis Adds To Economic Hardships Post-Terror

All she knew was that she was regularly troubled by severe cough, ulcer, fever, and severe weakness of the limbs. She often had to be helped up by her husband, children, or any other relation around her whenever she wanted to visit the lavatory or do some household chores she could do.

She never knew that those ailments were symptoms of a more serious ailment. When in December 2023 her condition deteriorated and she could not stand up. She was feeling so dizzy that she would fall whenever she tried to stand up. She had to be helped and supported by someone.

She, consequently, had to go to the Borno State Chest Diseases Centre. There, she was promptly diagnosed with Tuberculosis. This was the underlying ailment that triggered the string of ailments she had before.

She was promptly placed on the required treatment. To recover, drugs which she must take for six months were given to her.

Tuberculosis is eating deep into the population of the Borno State which is already troubled by Boko Haram and ISWAP terrors

The worst hit, according to experts, are the ten local government Areas in the Northern Borno Senatorial District.

The World Health Organisation, at its 13th Joint Operations Review in Yola, Adamawa State, November 2023, squealed over the alarming prevalence of TB in Borno State.

“The rate of tuberculosis in Borno is worrisome. It means that Borno could be a ticking time bomb for tuberculosis explosion in Nigeria,” WHO’s Head of Mission/Country Representative in Nigeria, Walter Mulombo, was reported to have revealed.

Governor Babagana Zulum, represented at the Yola Review convergence by the state Commissioner of Health, Prof Baba Malam-Gana, was reported to have compared the worrisome tuberculosis situation in his state to the devastating consequences of the Boko Haram insurgency that had destroyed 50 per cent of the state’s healthcare facilities and equipment.

Dr Bukar Bintube, Consultant Pulmonologist at the Borno Chest Diseases Center, speaking to newsmen recently, said, “WHO said that the rate at which tuberculosis is spreading in Borno State is going out of control, particularly in Northern Borno. This is not farfetched because of the Boko Haram insurgency that displaced people from their original homelands, coupled with low socioeconomic standards and hardships.”

Dr Bintube continued, “Because we observed that most patients with chest diseases are from Northern Borno, we investigated and found out that there is inadequate medical personnel there. There is an acute shortage of healthcare personnel there.”

Dr Bintube would not mention the exact number of TB patients in the state but revealed that every Monday the health facility received between 40 to 50 old and new TB patients, most of them from Northern Borno.

This, The PUNCH observed, is mildly suggestive of the picture in other tertiary and secondary healthcare facilities in the state.

Lamenting the Consultant Pulmonologist queried why the state was experiencing new cases of TB.

“What worries us now are the new cases. Why should there be new cases? It means there is a high rate of poverty in the society. This means the disease is spreading among people more than expected,” he said.

He suggested, therefore, that apart from providing more equipment to the Center, the state government should also adequately equip and employ more staff in all local government healthcare delivery facilities to enable them to tackle TB prevalence in poverty-ridden rural communities.

Complaining about the inadequacy of drugs, Dr Bintube disclosed that since 2020, when Governor Zulum directed the state Ministry of Health to provide drugs to the centre, up till date, no agency of the government had approached the centre with the drugs.

“The drugs we have been receiving are mostly from the Netherlands TB and Leprosy Control Programme. WHO has also provided us with a screening machine,” said the pulmonologist.

He called on all stakeholders on health especially federal and state parliamentarians from Northern Borno Senatorial District to consort with the state government in all efforts at tackling the situation.

Other patients recount their battle with the disease.