The Deputy Director and Programme Manager, National Trachoma Elimination Programme, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Nicholas Olobio, said this at the ongoing two-day National Trachoma Quarterly Review meeting in Abuja.
NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas, where they affect more than one billion people who live in impoverished communities.
These diseases are “neglected” because they are almost absent from the global health agenda, receive little funding, and are associated with stigma and social exclusion.
Nigeria carries around 25 per cent of Africa’s NTDs burden, making it one of the most endemic countries in the world for these debilitating conditions.
The PUNCH reports that a road map for neglected tropical diseases was launched in 2021. The road map sets out global targets to prevent, control, eliminate, and eradicate a diverse set of NTDs and disease groups by 2030.
The road map aims to renew momentum, proposes strategies that intersect multiple diseases, and advances actions focused on integrated platforms for the delivery of interventions.
Dr Olobio said, “Based on the World Health Organisation roadmap, it is for us to eliminate NTDs, including trachoma by 2030, but for us in Nigeria, we have made so much progress and we are looking at 2027 to eliminate the diseases.
“So far, it is done about 85 per cent because we have had about when we started we had about 38 million Nigerians at risk of going blind due to trachoma, but it has been reduced significantly to about 3.7 million Nigerians, so you will see that a lot of progress has been made, with support from our partners.”
Oloboi noted that the states are working in partnership with the Local Government Areas to implement strategies, and guidelines, and carry out activities towards the elimination of NTDs.
We have guidelines and all the states follow the guidelines and that is why we have achieved so much progress
He said Adamawa, Ebonyi, Bauchi, Kano, and Katsina states have made progress towards the elimination of NTDs.
“Medicines alone cannot deal with NTDs, but we inculcate water, sanitation, hygiene, and behavioural change. People need to stop the practice of open defecation; even in Abuja, there is open defecation, so we must look for ways to change people’s behaviour so that they can improve their ways of sanitation,” Olobio added.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the National Trachoma Taskforce and Sightsavers Global Trachoma Mapping Epidemiologist, Prof. Caleb Mpyet, said the meeting would help to review the level of SAFE strategy for trachoma implemented in each state as recommended by the WHO.
Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide. It is caused by an obligate intracellular bacterium called Chlamydia trachomatis. The infection is transmitted by direct or indirect transfer of eye and nose discharges of infected people, particularly young children who harbour the principal reservoir of infection. These discharges can be spread by particular species of flies.
Elimination programmes in endemic countries like Nigeria are being implemented using the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy. This consists of surgery to treat the blinding stage (trachomatous trichiasis); antibiotics to clear infection; facial cleanliness; and environmental improvement, particularly improving access to water and sanitation.
Mpyet said a lot of progress had been made in Nigeria and some states have reached the elimination stage.
“For instance, Benue State, and Bauchi State are nearing elimination and hopefully they will get there by the end of this year. Jigawa is also making a lot of progress. If there is any state that we may still be working on after this year, it may be Borno and Yobe states where insecurity has been a problem,” he said.
On Nigeria eliminating NTDs by 2027, he said, “Usually in life, you set your target and if you do not reach there, you reach somewhere near. We had some setbacks because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that brought us back by two to three years, so if we do not meet the target by 2027, we may reach the target by 2029.”
