Action Health Incorporated, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) has trained 60 health workers and sensitised over 1000 indigenes of Benue on detecting, reporting and timely referrals of suspected Tuberculosis (TB) cases to designated health centres.

The Programme Officer of the NGO, Ms Stella Soneye, made this known at a news conference on Monday in Makurdi.

Soneye described tuberculosis as an infectious disease caused by the Bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which typically affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect other sites (extra pulmonary TB).

According to her, tuberculosis spreads from person to person through the air.

“When people with pulmonary tuberculosis cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the tuberculosis germs into the air. However, a person needs to inhale only a few of these germs to become infected.

“When a person develops active tuberculosis disease, the symptoms (such as cough, fever, night sweats or weight loss) may be mild for many months.

“Tuberculosis, remains a serious public health threat to Nigerian men, women and children,’’ Soneye said.

She said the disease ranked sixth in 30 countries in terms of the number of people being affected.

Soneye said that Benue was one of the high prevalence states with the disease in the country.

She said that the NGO was collaborating with the Benue Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme with support from Agbami Partners (NNPC, Chevron, Famfa Oil Ltd., BR Petrobras and Statoil).

Soneye said that the aim was to implement a three-month Tuberculosis Awareness Campaign across 26 communities in three high tuberculosis-burdened local government areas.

According to her, these are Otukpo, Gboko and Makurdi Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Benue.

Soneye said that the campaign was in line with the National Strategic Plan of Action Goal of providing Nigerians with universal access to high-quality, patient-centered prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for TB, TB/HIV and Drug Resistant TB by 2020.

She said that the campaign was aimed at intensifying detection and reporting of TB cases beyond existing health facilities to communities and individual households.

“Timely referrals of suspected TB cases to Directly Observed Treatment Short-Course (DOTS) Centres and chest clinic in the three local government areas, which will in turn increase the uptake of Free TB services in the LGAs.

“To commence this campaign, a baseline knowledge, attitude and health-seeking practice survey was conducted among community members in selected project communities.

“The health workers and community vanguards were trained on epidemiology, transmission and identification of symptoms.

“ Meanwhile, health workers and community vanguards will continue to conduct one-on-one outreach in their respective communities, ‘’ Soneye said.

She said the health workers were also trained in community engagement, community-based active tuberculosis search and linking tuberculosis patients to treatment.

Soneye acknowledged that at the end of the training, the community vanguards demonstrated increased knowledge and skills to effectively create awareness on TB.

“They can now detect presumptive cases and efficiently refer the presumed patients to designated DOTs centres and Chest clinics for efficient management,’’ she said.