Nigeria, April 20 -- Tuberculosis, a pulmonary disease characterised by persistent coughing, killed more Nigerians in 2019 than the COVID-19 pandemic has so far done, health officials have said.

The 2020 WHO 'global tuberculosis report' indicated that an estimated 150,000 Nigerians died of TB in 2019 alone while the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said 2,061 persons have died of COVID-19 in the country since the index case in February 2020.

The different datas suggest that COVID-19 has so far killed only about 1.4 per cent of the number killed by TB in 2019 alone.

This data on TB was discussed in Maiduguri on Tuesday at a media orientation on Tuberculosis organised by Breakthrough Action, an NGO supported by USAID.

The WHO r...