Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole has confirmed that the country currently sits in the fourth position among the countries with high tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world while ranking first in Africa.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of TB laboratory equipment and launching of the standard procedure laboratory manual sponsored by Agbami co-venturers in the Agbami field, held at Southwest TB referral laboratory, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, he stated that the fight against the spread of tuberculosis in the country should be collective.
Agbami co-venturers comprises of five major oil companies namely: NNPC, Petrobras, Statoil, Famfa Oil and Chevron.
The N32 million equipment also has an alternative power supply comprising of a new power generating set and inverters.
The minister commended the sponsor of the project, Star Deepwater Petroleum Limited for recognizing the profitability of investment in the health sector noting that countries with improved social economy have adequate investment in health.
He said, “Many countries that have recorded improvement in the social economic indicators have also invested in health adequately.
“If you look at Malaysia, Thailand, many of them, you will see an improvement in their health indicators and reduction in mortality and referral mortality before they record improvement in their social economic indicators.
“This is another reason why investment in health is a win-win, and that is why keying into TB is a must for all of us. TB remains an epidemic and this morning we were at the TB hospital in Ibadan, the message clearly is all of us must work together to really put the tag on TB that this is a disease that is preventable.
“We can diagnose it easily because it is treatable and curable. Nigeria is one of the top six countries in the world with high TB rate. We are number one in Africa, in fact we are number four in the world, I think second to Indonesia, China and Russia. So, we are there in a black position. We must work together to change the narrative about TB. So, Working together will enable us to make the correct diagnosis.
“About 80 percent of our TB cases remain undiagnosed. We are only able to diagnose roughly one out of six, in order words, there are five out of six cases out there undiagnosed and they represent threat to our own health.
“Because when you stay with somebody who has a TB person and you did not know, you can easily acquire the TB. So we need to really put a lot of noise, a lot of emphasis, educate the public that TB is there, real, and working together, we can diagnose and treat TB and it is curable. And the treatment is free, so you don’t even have to pay,”
The minister however advised people to avoid overcrowding, avoid contaminated food and get adequate exposure to fresh air to avoid contacting TB assuring that the equipment would help the Federal Government accelerate measures to curb the spread of TB cases in the country.
“When there is a case of cough lasting for more than two weeks, anybody with undiagnosed fever, sudden weight losss losing and producing blood stain sputum is a suspected case of TB and it should be reported. TB treatment is free,” he said.
In his address, the Director of one of the donor company’s co-venturers; Richard Kennedy, who was represented by the Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Sam Otuonye, said the laboratory were meant to help enhance healthcare delivery in this the hospital.
He said, “we believe in the principle of doing the right things the right way using the right tools. To effectively adhere to this principle requires a good grasp of procedures. It is for this reason that we sponsored the production of the National Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Tuberculosis Laboratory Diagnosis and the National Guidelines on Biosafety for Tuberculosis Laboratories.”
Representatives of other co-venturers in the Agbami fields – NAPIMS, Petrobras, Famfa Oil Limited, also spoke on their companies commitment to improving the quality of healthcare in the society.
Earlier, the Chief Medical Director, UCH, Professor Temitope Alonge disclosed that the equipment will in no small measure transform the treatment of tuberculosis in the country adding that the facility is the best in diagnosis and treatment of TB.
He said “the equipment has everything you can talk of in diagnosis of tuberculosis. The staff are well trained and the patients are important to them. Henceforth, the story about treatment of tuberculosis would not be the same again.”
__________
Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng
Copyright 2017 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.
