…Restates readiness to tackle Monkey-Pox
By: Felix Ikpotor
As part of efforts geared towards ensuring that Rivers State is free from cases of tuberculosis, the government in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners has presented a total of 46 motorcycles to tuberculosis supervisors and their deputies in the 23 local councils of the state.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, while presenting the motorcycles to the supervisors and their deputies said the aim is to enable them reach the hard-to-reach areas of the state.
She also said the donation is geared towards ensuring that Rivers State which is currently ranked third in the country in tuberculosis eradication, gets to the first position.
“We have just unveiled 46 motorcycles that has been handed over officially to the 23 local government areas of Rivers State Tuberculosis Supervisors and their deputies. These motorbikes have been donated in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, The Global Fund and other partners towards eradicating tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in Rivers State.
“We are particularly excited because we know that the provision of these motorcycles will assist greatly, tuberculosis supervisors in each of our local government areas to carryout active surveillance in the communities.
“We know that tuberculosis is a problem in the communities but what gladdens us is that the efforts of the State Tuberculosis Treatment Programme have yielded significant fruit over the years. As at today, Rivers State has been acknowledged nationally by the Federal Ministry of Health as the number 3 in the states effort to eradicate tuberculosis in the country and we want to render the state free of tuberculosis,” she said.
While acknowledging the efforts of the state tuberculosis control team which has given the state a 96 percent treatment success rate, she urged them to do more to rid the state of the disease.
“We have a 96 percent treatment success rate from our treatment centres in the state. So we know that with these motorcycles, they would even reach more people and get more people from our communities on treatment and even increase our treatment success rate to what we have gathered and if possible, get us to one hundred percent. So it’s a very exciting day for us.
“I commend the Rivers State Tuberculosis Control Programme Team, Rivers State Ministry of Health Department of Public Health, Disease and Control. I commend them for the efforts they have made so far and I charge them to continue doing excellently well and continue putting Rivers State on the national and global map of efforts to eradicate tuberculosis from our state”.
She charged the TB supervisors and their deputies who are beneficiaries of the motorcycles not to rest on their oars but to use the bikes to reach all those that maybe suffering from the disease in the rural areas and get them on board for treatment.
“This motorcycles is to assist them carryout this work more successfully in our communities and we realised that to reach our communities and other locations can be very hard and that’s why this motorcycles have been provided to assist them to do that work, to find people. To find our brothers and our sisters within the communities in the hard-to-reach areas who may be suffering in silence, identify them, get them on treatment and clear them of tuberculosis so that we render Rivers State free of tuberculosis,” Oreh stated.
The State Health Commissioner used the occasion to restate the state’s preparedness to tackle other infectious diseases especially Monkey-Pox which has been declared a public health emergency.
She urged members of the public to report cases of the disease to the relevant health institutions for prompt action.
“A few days ago the World Health Organisation, WHO, announced M-Pox as a public health emergency of international repute. For us here in Rivers State, we have been proactive all this while. Sometimes last year, we were part of the flag-off of a research and capacity building in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to build capacity of our state officers who are deployed across the local government areas to identify and link up these cases of M-Pox.
“When seen, report such cases so that the necessary treatment can take place, the necessary documentation, knowledge sharing and capacity building can be done and that has been ongoing since last year, and you know that even with this global attention now on M-Pox, our emergency attention centre is fully poised to identify, report cases and do the needful to ensure that we are tackling M-Pox as the need arises in the state,” she stated.
