Nigeria loses $70 million annually because of this sickness

diamond hope

January 30, 2018 10:26 AM

Every year as a result of sleeping sickness caused by tsetse flies, Nigeria loses millions of dollars.

On Sunday, January 28, 2018, Arunsi Ukairo Kalu who is a professor of Veterinary Public Health stated in Umuahia that Nigeria loses about $70 million annually to sleeping sickness and the Federal Governments should try to eradicate tsetse flies and transpanomiases (T and T) that transmit the disease.

Kalu said this while delivering the 30th inaugural lecture of the University with the theme “Eliminating The Scourge Of Nagana/Sleeping Sickness Complex For Improved Animal Productivity And Public Health”.

He stated that $70 million annual loss was as a result of infections in bovines in six states of the North, adding this was beside expenses incurred on trypanocides. He cautioned that if the challenge was not resolved early enough, agricultural and livestock production would suffer an unprecedented setback.

Kalu noted that trypanosomiases comprises complex diseases of man, domestic animals, wildlife, and fauna and is caused by a flagellate haemoprotozoan parasite of the genus Trypanosomiasis.

According to him, the presence of tsetse flies in Nigeria has continued to have its toll on the national herd by reducing its population and the contribution of the livestock and agricultural sector just as it affects people's living standards and public health.

He cited a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which stated that more than 60 million people lived with the risk of becoming infected with sleeping sickness globally and that out of 500,000 infected, 50,000 die annually.

"Out of an estimated 165 million cattle on the African continent, only 10 million are within the tsetse belts while in Nigeria, 75% of the landmass in all agriculture-ecological zones are tsetse flies-infested except the Plateau of Jos, Mambilla, and Adamawa," the report stated.

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