Osun links TB spread to migration, treatment interruption

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The Osun State Government has linked the spread of tuberculosis to migrant miners and patients interrupting their treatment, a health official has disclose Read More:…

The Osun State Government has identified the movement of some migrant miners from northern Nigeria and the interruption of tuberculosis treatment as factors contributing to the spread of the disease in the state.

The Osun State Programme Manager for Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer at the Ministry of Health, Dr Rotimi Oladele, disclosed this at a one-day community dialogue with health workers in Osogbo.

The event, tagged Combat Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) Project, brought together health workers, public health experts, operators of non-governmental organisations, community members, the Damian Foundation and the Shead Foundation.

In a statement by the Osun State TB Network, the organisers of the event, obtained in Osogbo on Friday, Oladele said some miners diagnosed with tuberculosis in Atakunmosa West and Atakunmosa East Local Government Areas had relocated before they could begin treatment.

Responding to questions on factors contributing to the spread of the disease, he said, “From experience, we had a group of northerners in one of the local governments — Atakunmosa West and Atakunmosa East. You know, we have miners there. We diagnosed them, but before we could commence treatment, we discovered that they had migrated again to an unknown place.

“So, it is affecting us. For some of them, they might be on drugs, or they may have just been diagnosed in the North. They just disappear and then reappear here. It is affecting the spread.”

Oladele warned that patients who failed to complete their tuberculosis treatment or take their medication as prescribed could continue transmitting the disease.

“Once you are on tuberculosis treatment and you have not completed it, and you do not use the drug as prescribed by the doctors or by the programme, then there will not be the expected outcome.

“The individual will keep spreading the disease anywhere he goes,” he said.

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