2023 Tuberculosis Day: Foundation screens 297 people for treatment in Kaduna

An NGO, Hope for the Village Child, has collected samples from 297 people for screening during its free medical outreach to Joga in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State, to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day (WTD).

The Foundation would provide treatment for those who tested positive to the virus when the results were out.

The WTD is observed to raise public awareness and understanding about the TB and its devastating health, social and economic impact on people around the world.

Speaking with our correspondent, the Deputy Director of the foundation, Juliana Ekwoanya, said the outreach the community, Joga, was due to their frequent visits to the foundation’s hospital for diagnosis.

She said the diagnosis at times revealed that the patients were positive to TB.

She thanked the Kaduna State Government for its support, noting that they would share the outcome of the exercise with them for further actions to tackle the disease in the state.

Ekwoanya urged the people of Joga to ensure the practice of good hygiene at all times, adding that TB spread fast in unhygienic environments.

She also urged them to sleep in well ventilated rooms to reduce the rate of transmission in the community, while calling on those who noticed symptoms, especially through coughing to go for proper diagnosis.

Also, TB Coordinator of the Foundation, Sister Happiness Yahaya, said they only planned on testing 150 people, but exceeded the number to 297 because of the community turn out.

She said they took the outreach to the community, to ease the difficulty they faced in going to the hospital.

Yahaya explained that the community dwellers assumed coughing to always be ordinary.

“They are not aware that frequent coughing may be a sign of TB, or other respiratory track disease,” she said.

Appreciating the foundation for the gesture, the Village Head of Joga, Malam Musa Aminu, restated his commitment to enlighten his people on the need for healthy environment.

He also thanked the foundation for choosing his community for the outreach, while calling on the government and other well meaning Nigerians to see to their challenges of bad roads and other social amenities.

Meanwhile, our correspondent reports that the Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Baloni, during a news conference to mark World Tuberculosis Day on March 23, disclosed that in 2022, the state recorded 21,557 cases of TB.

Global efforts to combat TB has saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000, according to reports.