RSG Begins House-To-House TB Screening

Towards the elimination of tuberculosis (TB) in the State, the Rivers State Government has commenced house-to-house TB screening across the State.
Making this known yesterday, the State Program Manager, TB and Leprosy, Dr Victor Oris-Onyiri said in order to get to the hard-to-reach areas of the State, about 1,580 patent medicine dealers have been trained to provide TB services.
He stated that in addition to the trained patent medicine dealers, private hospitals were aslo included in the exercise to provide quality TB services.
“We can’t limit finding TB patients. Trained health care providers are going from house-to-house to take samples of sputum, send them for diagnosis, and if patients are positive, they will be linked to directly observed centers where they can take treatment”, he said.
He explained further that the State Government has also increased TB treatment service points to over 580 facilities, over 100 microscopy centers to improve access and coverage.
According to him, currently, free chest x-ray services are provided at the TB treatment centers to aid childhood TB diagnosis.
The Program Manager further stated that treatment of TB is at all supported sites in the State, and that drugs are given under direct supervision to ensure compliance and cure.

Stories by Sogbeba Dokubo