A public affairs analyst and faithful of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, Mr. Monye Ehiwuogwu Lucky, has called for the effective deepening of measures to combat the incidence of Tuberculosis (TB) in the country.
He said his call had become necessary based on the fact of the high rate of prevalence of TB in the country and its nature as a highly infectious disease.
In a statement to mark this year’s World TB Day on Tuesday, Monye said that there was an urgent need to significantly improve the existing policy of free treatment of victims of TB.
According to him, while the Federal Government and its development partners had sustained the noble policy of free tests, treatment and provision of drugs for patients of TB, there was an urgent need to bolster the policy with effective enlightenment of Nigerians on the cause(s) of infection, its effective management and how to avoid being infected.
Monye said that it would be more cost- efficient for stakeholders to take far- reaching preventive strategies, particularly, effective public enlightenment, than to depend solely on the measure of identification and treatment of those affected.
He said that the preventive option would be potentially more effective, given the fact of the emergence of a resistant strain of the bacteria that causes it.
The resistant strain of TB, he added, could only be effectively handled via Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT) treatment regime, hence the need for enhanced preventive measures.
Monye said that a part of the enlightenment programme should be on the effective reversal of the stigmatization of healed patients of the disease.
The analyst stressed that TB had become a public health issue in the country on account of its high rate of presence and spread, and its far-reaching consequences.
He named the effects of unrestrained TB prevalence on national development as less- than-optimal productivity, death and loss of procurement and treatment resources that should have been committed to meet other development needs of the society.
