Jethro Yerga, Jalingo
As part of efforts of the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria to end Tuberculosis TB in the year 2035 in Nigeria through a famous program, Grant Circle 7, (GC7) grant, its sub-recipient and Non-Governmental Organisation known as RedAid, has embarked on an aggressive war against Tuberculosis in Taraba State.
The RedAid personnel who have been in Taraba State for a while, are tactically engaging private health workers at Private facilities such as private hospitals, stand alone laboratories, community pharmacies, pattern medicine vendors, traditional healers and traditional bed attendance to train them on proper screening of TB wherever they work.
Interacting with our reporter at a two day workshop organised by the NGO for the people of Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, the Technical Officer for RedAid in Taraba State, Mr Stanley Nfor, stated that the NGO focused on building human capacity on TB services to ensure early identification of persons living with TB.
“We want to build our trainees’ capacity on TB services. We know fully well that some of them have only little or no knowledge of issues associated with TB, especially the traditional healers. The chemists are also business minded so they don’t really care much about who is affected by TB. So we aim at engaging them so that they can start proper screening of TB wherever they work.
“You can attest that in Nigeria, 70 per cent of the people who access health services, first of all, go to these chemists to buy drugs. It is only when the problem persist that they now go to the hospital. Therefore, most of those people with TB cases which are supposed to be diagnosed even at the early stage, are missed out.
“We are therefore out to build the capacity of these health workers, make them to be proactive in identifying signs and symptoms of TB. We give them the Technical training on how to screen TB so that they can start doing it at their respective places
“In the GC7, we have the community component where CBOs have been engaged to carry out community screening for TB and HIV. This they do it through house to house, outreaches, screening of nomads and IDPs.
“They move into the communities, identify the hotspots, move there and screen people in the community. Those who are presumptive, they link them up to facilities where the facilities take these samples to the labs. If it is positive the facilities put them on treatment.
“Mentor mothers are also engaged to link newly diagnosed HIV positive mothers and link them up for ART and ANC if negative.
“We believe that with this strategy, the aim of ending TB by the year, 2035 will be achieved because if we don’t bring the private sector, we will never achieve it,” the technical officer stressed.
He further disclosed that the trainees are empowered with consumables at the end of the training including screening and referral registers as well as sputum cups for collection of samples.
He advised people to fear not, when they suspect symptoms of TB, stating that TB is not a death sentence and everything about it, is free.
“They will screen you for free, test you for free, and then give you drugs for free. So why should some one die of TB, known fully well that the treatment is there for free?
“I want to encourage that once you are coughing for two weeks or more, or you suspect any sign of TB, go to any nearby facility, be it public or private, they have all been trained and their capacity on TB management is built, you will be attended to free of charge,” he added.
Recall that Nigeria is a beneficiary of Global Fund Grant Cycle 7 code-named GF GC7 which implementation covers a three-year period running from January 2024 to December 2026. Under this grant, the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria or IHVN for short is the principal recipient of the component covering the community and private health sector.
RedAid Nigeria, RAN for short is a sub-recipient of the same component of the grant overseeing its implementation in Taraba State
