As part of activities to mark the 2024 World Tuberculosis Day, the Federal Government in partnership with Breakthrough Action Nigeria has embarked on free Tuberculosis (TB) screening, treatment and sensitisation in six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Among the areas picked for the exercise is the Apo Mechanic village, which has a predominantly male population. Senior government officials explained that the reason for choosing male-dominated places is because according to the American National Library of Medicine, 66.9 per cent of those with tuberculosis are male.
Speaking on the occasion, the Head of Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM), National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme (NTBLCP), Dr Jamila Amin, noted that medical outreach and sensitisation has been conducted in schools, mosques, churches and other places adding that the team was in Apo mechanic to sensitise people on tuberculosis, screen them, as well as provide a treatment plan for them.
She said: “We have been holding outreaches in all the six area councils of the FCT within this period. Aside from tuberculosis testing, we are also doing HIV testing, offering free health counseling for people with disease generally but the screening for tuberculosis and HIV.
Representative of Lawyers Alert, an organisation that sees to the protection of those affected by tuberculosis, Bamidele Jacobs, stated that it is important for citizens to know that they have the right to free testing and treatment.
“Patients with tuberculosis have a right not to be discriminated against. We have been informed that once the patients undergo the first two-week treatment, the infection cannot be transmitted to anybody again.”
What this means is that after the first two weeks, the individual is free to relate with everybody and should not be discriminated against.
“The patient has a right to be humanly treated by the family, society and the health workers. He should not be treated as an outcast or as somebody who is no longer a human being. The mere fact that somebody is affected by tuberculosis does not take away the humanity in him, it is an infection that can be treated not a death sentence,” he said.
One of the survivors of tuberculosis, Mr Ekong Ubong, stated that his tuberculosis experience was a gory one and that sometimes he feels scared to narrate the story. According to him, he was infected with the disease in July 2013 in Akwa Ibom State. He returned to Abuja where his mother a health worker placed him on two weeks of observation.
During the observation, he experienced heavy coughing, lost a lot of weight and found it difficult to eat. At the end of the two-week observation, he was rushed to the Asokoro district hospital where he was diagnosed for tuberculosis and placed on the compulsory six-month treatment. Within six months, he was cleared of tuberculosis.
