By Prudence Eboagwu-Ijah
As part of activities lined up to commemorate World Tuberculosis Day, a road walk has been carried out within the federal capital territory to raise awareness and enlighten the residents of the FCT on the disease burden of Tuberculosis and the need for testing and treatment. `
Speaking on the essence of the road walk, the Director and Head of Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTBLCP) Itohowo Uko revealed that the World TB day activities seek to help improve testing and finding of missing cases.
“We want to raise public awareness on tuberculosis, to sensitize the public that there is a disease known as tuberculosis that is treatable and treatment is free. Anyone experiencing a cough for more than two weeks, feeling fatigue or losing weight should get tested for tuberculosis’’ Uko said.
Similarly, the National Coordinator (NTBLCP) Dr Chukwuman Anyaike said Nigeria is sitting on a keg of gunpowder in terms of tuberculosis prevalence as Nigeria is number one in Africa hence the need to create more awareness on TB so as to end Tuberculosis in Nigeria.
‘’The road show is primarily to augment our strides towards creating awareness because we believe it it’s a strategy to attract attention and make people know more about Tuberculosis. Our target is to end tuberculosis and ensure that no one is left behind’’. Dr Anyaike said.
Speaking on efforts to sustain the enlightenment of the populace on the prevalence of Tuberculosis in Nigeria, the program manager, Tuberculosis, Association for Reproductive and Family Health one of the implementing partners Dr John Osho said a year-long activity has been planned to help sustain the awareness creation on tuberculosis in the country.
“Sustained awareness is key as the disease is curable but a lot of people believe this disease is not curable. Presently, there is low knowledge of tuberculosis amongst people. This is the reason why we need to continue to enlighten the populace to inform them about tuberculosis so they can become more knowledgeable about tuberculosis.
The theme for this year’s World TB day is invest to End TB, with the slang Give more, Do more, End TB Now.
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