RSG Trains 80 Vanguards On Tuberculosis

L-R: The United States Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Tuberculosis, Eric Goosby, Chairman, Stop TB Partnership, Prof. Lovett Lawson and Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, during the 2016 National Tuberculosis Conference in Abuja, yesterday.

In its bid to eradicate and
check the spread of Tuberculosis in the state, the Rivers State Government in conjunction with development partners has trained 80 Community Vanguards for the door-to-door sensitisation of the tuberculosis (TB) disease and its treatment.
The Vanguards who cut across four local government areas of the state which are: Khana, Okrika, Obio Akpor and Ahoada-East with 20 Vanguards from each local government were charged with the responsibility of ensuring a one-on-one interaction with the community members, fishing out cases of Tuberculosis as well as linking them to the different Tuberculosis treatment centres, nearest to the patients.
Speaking to The Tide, The Deputy Control Officer,  Tuberculosis, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Mrs Helen Nyeche, said the training of the Community Vanguards had become necessary following the peoples’ lack of knowledge and poor attitude towards the TB disease and its patients adding that with the vanguards, cases would be easily identified and treated to end the scourge.
Nyeche said “these people are trained to create awareness, encourage the patients and also link them to the different TB treatment centres. I believe that these Vanguards can help us fight Tuberculosis because during the training you can see the excitement in them.
They were ready to enter the community to sensitise the people. The whole exercise was like using the people to tell their own people and by that the people respond easily. These vanguards by their proximity and day to day interaction with the people are able to notice a patient with cough for more than two weeks and report same at the treatment centre for further actions”.
Nyeche further stated that the four local governments would be used as a case study with the exercise to be replicated in the other local governments of the state depending on the response and outcome of this one as well as the availability of funds, expressing optimism that the exercise would yield required results for the eradication of the TB disease in the state.

Lady Godknows Ogbulu