By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, March 29, GNA – Inspire To Act, an NGO, in collaboration with Dawah Academy, has commemorated this year’s World Tuberculosis (TB) Day with a call on all stakeholders to increase awareness on TB.
The commemoration was also in partnership with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) targeting some community student nurses on how they could intensify public knowledge on TB, especially at the community level.
It formed part of the implementation of a year-long project by the two NGOs in six districts in the Northern Region, which among others, rallies the support of both clinical and non-clinical staff of the GHS to minimise the prevalence of stigma and discrimination against TB patients.
The project dubbed: “Promoting the Human Rights of People with and Affected by TB to Health Services”, is supported by the Stop TB Partnership and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) with funding support from USAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and Tuberculosis.
Alhaji Abdul-Karim Ibrahim, Executive Director, Dawah Academy, lead implementing partner of the project, speaking at the event, emphasised the need for all stakeholders to advocate for the rights of persons affected by TB.
He said this would encourage people to test and know their TB status and to seek early medication to reduce deaths.
He urged members of the public to disregard all the erroneous perceptions of TB, saying it was preventable and treatable.
Dr Anthony Gingong, Northern Regional Tuberculosis Coordinator, educated participants on the causes, and effects and how they could contribute to increasing public awareness and help address some of the wrong notions attributed to TB.
He called for the introduction of a community-based surveillance system to make it easy to track and gather all suspected TB cases through trained community volunteers to facilitate early medication.
Mr Francis Kpadonou, Northern Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for TB, sensitised participants on the need to prioritise screening and vaccination for TB to reduce deaths being recorded.
Miss Moniika Sophia Bateenin, a community health student, commended partners for commemorating World TB Day and equipping them with the right advocacy information to help in the communities.
World TB Day is observed annually on March 24, to help build public awareness about the global epidemic of TB and efforts to eliminate the disease.
GNA