Tuberculosis Outbreak In Cross River State, Kills 147...

 In Cross River State, 149 people have lost their lives to tuberculosis and 7,000 more have contracted the disease in the past two years.

At the World Tuberculosis Day kickoff event held yesterday in Calabar, the state capital, at Christ for the World Mission, Dr. Henry Ayuk, the state commissioner for health, presented the figures.

According to Ayuk “You can see that the mortality is not accepted. TB is a killer, yet it can be prevented. It can be treated. This is why we came here to let people know.” 

Noted as having roughly 177 treatment locations in the state, he asked everybody in the state with a cough that has persisted longer than two weeks to get a free diagnostic and treatment at any of the centres.

“When you visit any treatment centre and you are declared positive, treatment is free, it’s the reason we are here in church to let you know this,” he added.

A single TB patient can infect almost 15 others in a year, according to Dr. Bassey Offor, the project manager for TB and leprosy control in Cross River.

He emphasised that an unclean environment is the cause of tuberculosis infection and identified the local government areas in the state with a high frequency of the disease, including Calabar South, Ogoja, Boki, and Yakurr.

Since the virus is spread by the air, state coordinator for Breakthrough Action Pascaline Edim urged people to avoid living in crowded, dirty environments in order to avoid contracting it. She also urged nursing mothers to make sure their babies receive the antigens vaccine.