By Iyemah David
The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Program (NTBLCP), said that meaningful community engagement is critical to improving the reach and the sustainability of Tuberculosis (TB), service and accelerating progress toward ending TB by 2030 in the country.
The National Coordinator of NTBLCP, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, said this during the flag-off of community outreach, marking the 2022 National Tuberculosis Screening/ Testing, at the Gishiri Community Chief’s Palace, on Thursday in Abuja.
The National TB toll-free call centre, 3340 has continued to make significant contributions to giving correct and prompt TB information, referral for Tb testing and support for Tb treatment adherence.
The call centre is linked to the “Check Am O” Unified TB Campaign, the hotline is promoted on radio, television, social media, and all SBC materials including T-shirts and reflector jackets.
Calls are received from all states by trained agents who attend to enquiries on various topics around TB, including causes, symptoms, and referral to the nearest testing centres.
The NTBLCP is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Breakthrough ACTION – Nigeria (BA-N) to manage the toll-free hotline. So far, from January to June 2022, the call centre has received 51,266 calls, out of which 27,771 were unique calls, 759 were referred for testing, and 108 self-reported as positive.
The call centre has also contributed tremendously to the success of the DAT project by providing technical support for the ever-well platform, follow-up, and survey calls, and SMS enlightening and encouraging patients on the need to adhere to their medication and to continue sending their adherence codes to 3340 after taking their medications.
The latest innovation of the call centre is the *3340# USSD service. This is now available on all networks.
According to Anyaike, “We are here to tell the community that TB is a very big problem and is killing several people; it is not a respecter of persons or status. Because it is in the air, it makes it more dangerous.”
He stated that every year on March 24, NTBLCP have this type of gathering, but it has decided not to wait till another March 24, to bring interventions.
It would be recall that the WHO stated that TB is the 13th leading cause of death in the world and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS.
In 2020 about 6 in every ten persons infected with TB were male, with an estimated 10 million people (5.6 million men, 3.3 million women, and 1.1 million children) testing positive.
A total of 1.5 million people were lost to TB in the year. TB is an infectious disease caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria and affects the lungs of those it infects, but is curable and preventable. As an evening airborne disease, it spreads through cough, sneezing, or saliva. The disease affects all age groups.
Meanwhile, Fear of the social stigma associated with a TB diagnosis makes some Nigerians delay getting tested for the disease.
