By Our Correspondent
The Ogun State Government has described school children as change agents needed to scale up Tuberculosis (TB) sentization at the community level, emphasizing the necessity for more collaborations among all relevant stakeholders.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, made this known while flagging off the School-Based Tuberculosis Sensitization and free screening at Lantoro High School, Abeokuta as part of activities to commemorate the 2022 World Tuberculosis Day, themed "Invest to End TB.
Save Lives."
Coker, who was represented by the Director, Public Health, Ministry of Health, Dr. Festus Soyinka, disclosed that the screening programme would hold simultaneously in 100 schools across the 20 Local Government Areas of the State, calling on stakeholders to join the government in engaging school children in the dissemination of information on TB prevention and control.
"We have decided to target school children this year because they are change agents. I want us to encourage them to ask someone that coughs beside them, " for how long". If it is more than two weeks they can be advised to see a doctor. Our children can spread such a key message widely in the community," she said.
The Commissioner said the state government detected and managed a total of 4,783 Tuberculosis patients with an 82% treatment success rate in 2021, saying the detected cases represented 38 % of the estimated number of TB cases in the state.
She, therefore, emphasized the need for increased screening across the state to identify the remaining estimated 62% of undetected TB patients, calling on various relevant stakeholders to join the State to devise more innovative means towards increased case finding and improved massive awareness about the disease.
Representing the TB Partners in the State, the Coordinator, Damien Foundation Belgium (DFB), Dr. Muse Fadeyi, said TB awareness at the community level should be a continuous thing in Nigeria, assuring the government of more collaboration with his organization.
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