As the world celebrates global tuberculosis day, the Sokoto State Manager, Tuberculosis and Leprosy Unit with the Ministry of Health, Dr Bello Tambuwal says TB among top 10 causes of death worldwide.
World Tuberculosis Day is observed March 24th every year to raise public awareness about the effect of tuberculosis and steps to eliminate the disease.
The sensitization in Sokoto held at conference hall of Epidemiology unit of the Specialist Hospital Sokoto, with this year’s theme: “Invest to End TB. Save Lives”.
Tambuwal who highlighted some successes recorded in the state said, “You can see that TB is still with us; a lot of people are coughing but they don’t come to hospital; we manage because of the strategy and innovations to diagnose many cases.
“Obviously, the cases were doubled in 2021 when you compare to that of 2020. In 2021, we diagnosed over 18,366 cases as against 2020 when we diagnosed 9,267. So we are making some improvement.
“There is the need for people to change their habit of not reporting TB cases regularly. TB diagnoses and treatment is free but people don’t come to the hospital for checkup. They think it is paid for. Diagnoses and treatment of TB is free of charge,” Dr Bello added.
He said that the sokoto state government has provided six modern digital X-ray machines with childhood TB identification and diagnosis.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Ali Inname said the machines would be installed in Illela, Tangaza, Gada, Tambuwal and Bodinga general hospitals to improve the identification and testing, especially on childrens that are affected by the disease.
