Nigeria has the widest gap in Africa between the estimated number of tuberculosis (TB) cases and those detected and placed on treatment, raising concerns about the country’s efforts to contain the disease, international researchers have warned.
The warning was given by Professor Bertie Squire, Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, during a memorial lecture organised by the Zankli Research Institute, Bingham University, in honour of Professors Lovett Lawson and Luis Cuevas.
The lecture was part of activities marking the institute’s 10th anniversary.
Squire identified men, who account for approximately two-thirds of TB transmission across Africa, as a critical population requiring targeted screening. He also highlighted poor households, rural and peri-urban communities, people living with HIV and children as groups requiring particular attention.
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He stressed that improving TB control required not only the development of better diagnostic technologies but also ensuring that infected persons had timely access to testing to prevent further transmission.
Highlighting advances in diagnosis, he cited research showing that collecting two sputum samples on the same day could achieve accuracy comparable to the conventional collection of three samples over several days, thereby reducing the financial and social burden on patients.
He also highlighted advances in molecular diagnostic technologies capable of producing results within 45 minutes to one hour, with sensitivity levels in the 90 per cent range.
Squire further discussed the Light Consortium, involving institutions in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and the United Kingdom, which has explored community-based screening approaches targeting men through male champions and mobile chest X-ray services.
He also highlighted the efforts of the Start4All research consortium to identify TB cases missed by existing health systems.
Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of Bingham University, Professor Haruna Kuje Ayuba, paid tribute to the late Professor Lawson, describing him as a visionary scientist and mentor whose determination laid the foundation for the institute through the establishment of a laboratory dedicated to addressing public health challenges.
The institute’s Director, Associate Professor John Samson Bimba, traced its origins to the early 2000s, when Lawson established a laboratory in the basement of Bizanti Centre, Abuja, with support from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
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He said the laboratory’s acquisition of an MGIT machine provided a lasting platform for TB drug resistance testing, postgraduate training and support for Nigeria’s National Tuberculosis Programme.
Reflecting on the institute’s transformation from a laboratory into a research centre and eventually a research institute, Bimba said: “The journey from the laboratory to the Research Institute is not just a story of equipment and buildings. It is actually a story of partnership, scientific curiosity, perseverance and, above all, the conviction that research must improve lives.
“Ten years is a milestone, but for us at Zankli Research Institute, it is also a bridge to the future.”