The World Health Organisation (WHO), in partnership with the Kaduna State government, has scaled up testing operations for Covid-19 and tuberculosis with mobile testing in communities across the state.
Development Diaries understands that the Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, speaking at the launch of the intervention, expressed his commitment towards curbing the spread of the diseases.
El-Rufai said, ‘We are thankful to USAID and WHO for collaborating with us in our efforts to eliminate tuberculosis and the Covid-19 scourge in Kaduna’.
With 18 deaths per hour and over 157,000 deaths annually due to tuberculosis, WHO, in collaboration with the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and the Kaduna State government, has co-facilitated the implementation of an integrated community testing, using a mobile itinerant TB diagnostic facility called the ‘Wellness on Wheels’ truck.
The WHO will also be proving regular supportive supervision to help sustain the initiative through upgrading existing health facilities with Gene Xpert machines.
It was also learnt that the WHO will also install and certify Biosafety level two cabinets and provide a constant supply of personal protective equipment (PPE).
WHO’s National Professional Officer for tuberculosis in the northwest, Dr Moses Onoh, said, ‘This is a big leap towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
‘The integrated diagnostic services for Covid-19, along with tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and hepatitis, ensures routine surveillance and management, and minimises the disruption effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on these essential services and the suffering of the public’.
One of the beneficiaries of the initiative, Aishatu Abdulahi, said, ‘We thank the government for sending this moving hospital to our village to help us with testing and medicines.
‘I have not gone to the hospital in a long while and this gave me and my family the opportunity to see the doctor’.
The mobile facility has increased community access to not just testing for tuberculosis, but also testing for Covid-19 and other deadly diseases.
Source: CNBC Africa
Photo source: Governor Tom Wolf
