NEPWHAN Urges FG to Declare TB Drug Shortage a National Emergency

The Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Nigeria, known as NEPWHAN, has called on the Federal Government to urgently declare the ongoing tuberculosis commodity stock-out a national public health emergency. Abdulkadir Ibrahim, National Coordinator of NEPWHAN, made the call during a press briefing in Abuja, warning that the shortage is creating a crisis within a crisis for the estimated 467,000 Nigerians who are co-infected with both HIV and tuberculosis.

The Scale of the Drug Shortage

Tuberculosis is the leading infectious killer of people living with HIV globally. In Nigeria, where both diseases remain significant public health challenges, a disruption in the supply of anti-TB drugs creates disproportionate harm for the most vulnerable patients. Many of those affected are already managing complex medication regimes for HIV. Adding a gap in TB treatment creates conditions for drug resistance to develop and for patients’ overall health to deteriorate rapidly.

Ibrahim described the stock-out situation as urgent and deteriorating, with health facilities across multiple states reporting interruptions in the availability of first-line tuberculosis medications. Furthermore, he warned that without immediate government intervention, the consequences for patients and for Nigeria’s overall tuberculosis control programme could be severe and long lasting.

Why This Matters Beyond HIV Patients

Tuberculosis is a highly transmissible airborne disease. When patients cannot complete their treatment courses due to drug shortages, the risk of developing drug-resistant strains increases significantly. Drug-resistant TB is far more difficult and expensive to treat, requires longer treatment periods, and carries higher mortality rates.

Consequently, a TB drug shortage that begins as a crisis for people living with HIV can quickly become a broader public health threat affecting communities well beyond those already in the health system. Nigeria’s tuberculosis burden is already substantial, placing the country among the high burden nations tracked by the World Health Organisation.

What NEPWHAN Is Demanding

Ibrahim called for immediate government action on several fronts: emergency procurement of sufficient TB medication stocks, a formal declaration that the shortage constitutes a national public health emergency to unlock faster funding and procurement mechanisms, and improved coordination between the relevant federal agencies to prevent similar disruptions in the future.

He also called on international health partners, including the Global Fund and PEPFAR, to provide emergency bridging support while domestic procurement is accelerated. For the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians currently managing HIV and tuberculosis simultaneously, these are not bureaucratic requests. They are matters of immediate survival.