About one million tuberculosis (TB) patients may die, with over 6.5 million people estimated to be affected globally in the near future as a result of the secondary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is largely due to the fact that the treatment of COVID-19 seems to be getting the major attention globally in healthcare services, to the detriment of other equally important routine healthcare services like tuberculosis, immunisation, among others.

The new Executive Director at KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, Dr. Mustapha Gidado, stated these on Monday in Abuja, during a news conference.

Gidado, who is the first non-Dutch professional to man the position in the organisation, also explained that TB innovation and interventions have to be made simple and scaled up to achieve significant results of detecting missing cases, raising the index of suspicion by healthcare workers and effectively treating TB patients.

According to him, “We are all going through a trying moment with the Covid-19 pandemic globally and with over 20 million already infected and affected. We are already heading to a million deaths, which is quite unfortunate and unprecedented.