Niger yet to achieve 90% TB identification target — Commissioner
NAN-HG-11
Identification
By Mercy Osajiugo
Minna, March 24, 2017 (NAN) The Niger Commissioner for Health, Dr Mustapha Jibril, says the state is yet to achieve the 90 per cent target of identifying people living with tuberculosis (TB).
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Minna on Friday, on the occasion of the 2017 World Tuberculosis Day with the theme “Unite to End TB’’.
The World TB Day, observed annually on March 24, is to build public awareness that tuberculosis still remains an epidemic that causes deaths of nearly one and half million people annually.
It also commemorates the day in 1882, when Dr Robert Koch, a German microbiologist, announced his discovery of the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus.
The Niger health commissioner said the state had achieved 70 per cent identification
of people living with the disease, but that the number was not enough.
According to him, there is a national mandate to identify 90 per cent of people with TB and treat over 85 per cent of them.
He added that the state had 3,900 hard-to-reach communities which posed challenges to treatment and cure of the disease.
He stressed that “the Niger State Ministry of Health is working hard by increase people’s awareness about the disease.
“We are increasing the number of sites where people with TB can visit for treatment and where people can go for diagnosis.
“I want to say that TB drugs are free and accessible; TB is treatable and curable.”
Jibril advised people to look out for friends and relations with TB symptoms and identified the symptoms as coughs that persisted for over two weeks, consistent weight loss and night sweats.
He added that people with the symptoms should visit hospital immediately and
not to relate it to witchcraft.
He also warned that people should not indulge in self-medication, as it was dangerous.
TB, which is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, is a contagious disease that usually attacks the lungs.
It can also spread to other parts of the body such as the brain and spine and travels through droplets of an infected person. (NAN)
MNO/VIV/HA
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Edited by Vivian Ihechu/Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu