As the globe marks World Tuberculosis day, the Federal Ministry of Health has highlighted reasons patients of Tuberculosis die silently.
Olajumoke Adebari, an Assistant Director of Advocacy, Communication, and Social Mobilization unit of the national Tuberculosis program, said the disease kills silently because those infected delay in carrying out tests and treating it appropriately.
She spoke during a sensitization programme at Agwan Shaho in Karmo area of Abuja as part of activities to celebrate world Tuberculosis day.
According to Adebari: “World TB Day was the day that Robert Koch in 1882 found the treatment for Tuberculosis. So since then, we started commemorating that day yearly; having found the drug for Tuberculosis, people will not die from TB again. When they take the complete dose of the treatment, they get cured.
“We normally do awareness programs like this for people not aware of Tuberculosis. They get to know about our facilities, and they can assess these facilities free of charge, diagnosis is free, treatment is free, TB is curable. Nobody needs to die from TB.
“Anybody coughing for two weeks or more can go and take this test and after taking the test when they find out that they are TB positive, they should charge them on treatments. That’s what happened.”
“It appears that Tuberculosis is a silent killer. People are not aware they have TB until they go for a test and are found to be positive. Most people don’t go for this test, so they die silently.
“If people get tested, it will not kill them silently but if they don’t get tested, they die silently without knowing what killed them.
“Awareness, people are not aware of the disease, people think Tuberculosis has been eradicated, also the stigma associated is one of the hindrances as they are not willing to come out.”
