PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has decried the increasing rise in Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Africa, urging the continent’s leaders to adopt policies and legislations that would strengthen its poor health systems.
Declaring open the 18th African Region Conference of the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (IUATLD) yesterday in Abuja, President Jonathan, who was represented by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, expressed the concern that the diseases’ burden had compounded the emergence of MDR-TB:
He said: “A drug-resistant epidemic of TB is a serious threat to all our efforts. People on our continent must be provided with the information, diagnostic facilities and treatment for MDR-TB.
“In Africa today, a tragedy of extraordinary proportions is unfolding due to HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ATM), claiming more lives than the sum total of all wars, famine and floods.”
