A non government organisation, Action Health Incorporated (AHI), has trained 60 health workers and community vanguards in three Local Government Areas of Benue State on early detection of tuberculosis (TB) among other related issues.
The NGO in a two-day capacity building conducted for the 60 health workers and community vanguards in Otukpo, Gboko and Makurdi LGAs respectively exposed the participants to epidemiology, transmission and identification of symptoms of tuberculosis, community engagement, community-based active tuberculosis search and linking TB patients to treatment amongst others.
A statement by AHI’s Stella Soneye, at the end of the training, indicated that the community vanguards demonstrated increased knowledge and skills to effectively create awareness on TB, detect presumptive cases and efficiently refer the presumed patients to designated DOTs centres and Chest clinics for efficient management.
Soneye in the statement noted that over 1000 persons were sensitised upon completion of the group sensitisation activities and as part of the TB awareness campaign, the trained health workers and community vanguards would continue to conduct one-on-one outreach in their respective communities.
The project was however with support from Agbami Partners (NNPC, Chevron, Famfa Oil Limited, BR Petrobras and Statoil) while Action Health Incorporated in collaboration with the Benue State Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme are implementing the three months Tuberculosis Awareness Campaign across 26 communities in the three high TB burden LGAs of the state.
The statement added that tuberculosis remains a serious public health threat to the men, women and children of Nigeria as it ranks sixth among the 30 countries in the world in terms of the numbers of people with TB disease, emphasising that Benue State is one of the high prevalence states with TB in Nigeria.
