By CrossRiverWatch Admin
The Cross River state Government joined the rest of the global community to mark the 2019, World Tuberclosis Day in Calabar.
The State Ministry of Health in collaboration with Family Health International, fhi360 and KNC Tuberculosis in a week-long event, took to the streets of Calabar and hard-to-reach areas to raise awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of the disease.
With an average of 500 cases reported quarterly through active case finding, a total of 6000 new cases have been reported in the State since mid-2015 and 22 Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) patients are currently receiving treatment across the State.
In her remarks during the event, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Inyang Asibong, said, “To accelerate the TB response, the State Government has so far set up 200 Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse (DOTS) TB centers across the State, with 60 Microscopic Centers for diagnosis at absolutely no cost.
“We flagged some suspected cases during our rally at Etim Edem Park and they have been referred for further management in our specialist facility.”
The Commissioner added that, “Each day, nearly 4500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 54 million lives since the year 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 42%.”
The theme for this year’s WTD – ‘It’s time’ – puts the accent on the urgency to act on the commitments made by global leaders to scale up access to prevention and treatment of the disease.