Follow Us on Google
From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Executive Secretary of the Plateau State Health Management Board, Dr. Raymond Juryit, has expressed the readiness of the state to contain any eventual outbreak of the dreaded Ebola disease in the state.
Speaking at a one-day Stakeholders Engagement and Media Advocacy Meeting on Community-Led HIV and Malaria Services in Plateau State in Jos, Juryit, who was represented by the Director of Disease Control and Immunization, Dr. Yakubu Dauda Izang, said that this involved informing all staff, including disease surveillance and notification officers and epidemiologists on early preparedness, and sensitizing communities on hygiene and prompt notification of any signs of illness.
He expressed the need for communities to be more involved in the surveillance of communicable diseases, saying that the Integrated Community-Led Monitoring (ICLM) aimed at ensuring that people don’t die from preventable diseases like TB and HIV by encouraging community members to support their local health facilities.
Juryit said, “The board is 99.9% prepared for potential outbreaks like Ebola. We have already put our staff on notice for early surveillance and containment of not only Ebola, but other communicable diseases.”
Speaking on the success in malaria control, in Plateau state, he said that the state has achieved significant success in controlling the diseases, making it second in rank to only Lagos State in terms of low prevalence and positivity testing.
He attributed the success to partnerships with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs), stressing that the board had been able to address past challenges in the control of communicable disease with drug availability, leading to a significant drop” in the incidence of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria cases,
“NGOs have played a crucial role in raising community awareness about communicable diseases like malaria, TB, and AIDS, resulting in greater community ownership and improved access to treatment facilities.”
Also speaking at the event, the National Programme Manager, Global Fund/IHVN/TBN AIDS, TB and Malaria Integrated Community-Led Monitoring Project, Cecelia Kafran Abimaje and Plateau State Program Officer, Peter Ezekiel, speaking at a one day Stakeholders Engagement and Media Advocacy Meeting on Community-Led HIV and Malaria Services in Plateau state in Jos, expressed the need for communities to understand that health is everyone’s concern and not solely the government’s responsibility.
Other News
According to Abimaje, civil society organizations, including TB Network, are ready to support the NCDC (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control) in pandemic preparedness, drawing on experiences from COVID-19.
She emphasized the role of community members as first responders and the importance of timely information dissemination and government partnership.
The national programme manager said, “Integrated Community-Led Monitoring (ICLM) aims to ensure people don’t die from preventable diseases like TB and HIV by encouraging community members to support their local health facilities.
She identified shortage of permanent staff, inadequate publicity and lack of advocacy for the spread of communicable diseases, stressing that many people are unaware of the symptoms of diseases like TB, leading to self-medication or reliance on traditional remedies that can worsen their condition.
On his own part, the programme officer for Plateau State, Peter Ezekiel, decried the high occurrence of co-infection of malaria and TB in HIV patients in Plateau state, stressing that co-infection could make a disease more severe and potentially more infectious.
He said,”HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria are diseases that demand consideration due to the disproportionate effect on individuals due to socioeconomic inequality and abject poverty. While the motivations of the international community to support addressing the diseases include pragmatic concerns of international security, economic prosperity, and domestic health status, they must ultimately include the ethical responsibility to address inequalities.
“Adequate attention to the systemic forces underlying these infections thus necessitates corresponding systemic solutions. Socioeconomic demographics influence the prevalence of malaria, HIV, and TB infection; the diseases are poverty-related, with the poorest populations most vulnerable due to poor access to health facilities, information, and education.
Programme Manager, TB Network, Mr. Daniel Mancha, described the media engagement as timely given the prevalence and spread of these communicable diseases, especially among the rural poor.
He advocated for more community participation in the process to contain the spread and eventually eradication of the diseases.
The project is executed under the Global Fund GC7 Integrated Community-Led Monitoring (CLM) Project for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Participants include health professional, media practitioners, and community based organisations involved in HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria eradication projects.
