Lagos — The Chief Medical Director of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Dr. Oni Idigbe has lamented Nigeria's global rating as third after Rwanda and Malawi in Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence .

Dr. Idigbe in a telephone interview with Daily Champion said last year alone that Nigeria recorded over a million new cases of TB

Idigbe attributed the increase in TB cases to the prevailing poor economic situation in the country resulting in majority of the populace not having enough good food to eat.

"Another factor behind the rise in TB infection has been the emergence of new drug resistant strains, which are harder to control and up to 100 times costlier to treat."

"The boom in international travel and tourism as well as increased migration have also contributed to the spread of TB. Airplanes provide ideal environments for transmission as they often are crowded and poorly ventilated," he said.

Idigbe said majority of the TB patients in the country are between 20 and 49 years.

Describing the disease as a major public health problem, he said only an insignificant fraction of the sufferers come forward to receive treatment because of the social stigma that is associated with the disease. "Many T.B patients often cough out blood and as a result feel self-conscious and people tend to stigmatise them," he said.

Speaking in similar vein, a consultant chest physician of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Dr. Soji Ige said majority of TB cases occur in sub-Sahara Africa and Asia.

He said the precarious situation was being fuelled by poor living conditions, ignorance, poverty and lately HIV/AIDS ailment.

Ige identified HIV as the most potent factor that converts latent TB to a very active transmissible disease and lamented that TB and HIV/AIDS are killing millions of Nigerians everyday.

He urged government to curb the spread of TB, noting that lack of adequate investment and political will on the part of government has worsen the situation.