Delta Tackles Spread Of Tuberculosis With Over 290, 000 Centres
The Delta State Government said it has established over 290, 000 centres in its health facilities across the state for the treatment of Tuberculosis (TB).
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, made this known during a State wide broadcast as part of activities to celebrate the 2018 Tuberculosis Day in Asaba over the weekend.
Commissioner Ononye said other TB services readily available across the State under the Delta State TB Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Centre are the ten (10) number Gene-Xpert Centres and eighty (80) Microscopy Centres for the diagnosis of Tuberculosis disease.
He said that efforts by government to arrest the disease is yet to yield the desired result due to the fact that majority of people have no awareness about the disease and its transmission, the mythical beliefs and exercise of faith hinder access to care while some patients refused to be treated even with financial encouragement from Partners.
According to Dr. Ononye, ‘Delta State is one of the 22 high burden States for Tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant Tuberculosis and revealed that his Ministry had notified 2,258 new cases of TB in the year 2017 representing only 14.2% of the expected notification and this, still falls far short of the estimated 16,000-plus cases of TB living with us.
To Control the diseases, the Commissioner said ‘we need to find these infected unaccounted over 13,000 persons that show the symptoms and signs of cough lasting 2 weeks or more, which is the major sign and symptom of the disease with or without other accompanying signs like: fever, Night sweat, weight loss, loss of appetite, coughing of blood, chest pains. He added that over 200 cases of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis have been notified in the state till date.
Giving the Statistics of the disease Worldwide, he stated that there were 3 million TB patients undetected in 2016 worldwide while 10.4 million new cases of TB were estimated to have occurred in the year 2017. He added that the 2016 Global TB Report showed Nigeria had the highest TB burden (at least in terms of absolute numbers) in Africa and ranked fourth on the list of countries with TB.
He further said that Nigeria is a high burden country for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and HIV and that in 2016, Nigeria notified less than 20 per cent of the total TB cases estimated for the year, implying that there are many undetected TB cases in communities.
Dr. Ononye revealed that unfortunately opinion leaders, societal and community leaders that should identify with the problems of Tuberculosis are hard to come by as stigmatization, discrimination and fear are still rife in the society.
He therefore said the theme of the celebration ‘wanted: Leaders for a TB- free world’ is very apt as there is the need for leaders from all works of life to be engaged, even as they themselves will be engaging others in a coordinated manner towards eradicating the disease from all conceivable angles. As part of the Celebration, efforts will be made to identify and engage those personalities who can stand in this position he further said.
The Commissioner used the opportunity to place a clarion call to all and sundry to lend their hands in this direction as stakeholders. The various sectors should identify areas where they could be of help in the fight against this disease.
He also used the medium to thank various partners and stakeholders that have continually come to the State’s assistance to slow down the tide of the scourge such as the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme, World Health Organization, Global Fund, United States Agency for International Development, Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria, German Leprosy and TB Relief Association, Caritas Nigeria, Community-Based Organizations, and many others who have been committed over the years on this path.