FILE PHOTO: Tuberculosis-Bacteria. By punchng.com
People Live in Terror-induced Poverty, Tuberculosis Exacerbates the Anguish.
Experts are gravely concerned about the growth of tuberculosis in Borno State, which is being fueled by destitution, malnutrition, and other issues orchestrated by the insurgency.
Hadiza Idris of the Dala ward in the Jere Local Government Area of Maiduguri city has been worrying about her health and changing body for, well, God knows how long. All she knew was that she suffered from severe dyspnea, ulcers, fever, and limb weakness on a regular basis.
Whenever she wanted to use the restroom or complete other home chores that she could do on her own, she frequently needed assistance getting up from her spouse, kids, or other relatives around.
She was unaware that such illnesses were signs of a more serious condition. When her health worsened in December 2023 and she lost the ability to stand.
Every time she tried to stand up, she would stumble due to her extreme vertigo. Someone needed to support and assist her.
had to visit the Borno State Chest Diseases Centre as a result. She received a fast diagnosis of tuberculosis there.
This was the underlying illness that caused the previous series of illnesses she had. She got started on the necessary treatment right away.
She was prescribed medications to take for six months in order to heal.
The disease is wreaking havoc on Borno State’s population, which is already plagued by Boko Haram and the fear of ISWAP.
Experts say that the 10 local government areas in the Northern Borno Senatorial District have been affected the hardest.
During the 13th Joint Operations Review held in Yola, Adamawa State, in November 2023, the World Health Organization expressed concern over the concerning rate of tuberculosis in Borno State. “It is concerning how common tuberculosis is in Borno.
According to reports, Walter Mulombo, the WHO’s Head of Mission and Country Representative in Nigeria, said that Borno “may be a ticking time bomb for tuberculosis explosion in Nigeria.”
The state’s commissioner of health, Prof. Baba Malam-Gana, represented Governor Babagana Zulum at the Yola Review convergence.
It was reported that the governor likened the concerning tuberculosis situation in his state to the catastrophic effects of the Boko Haram insurgency, which had destroyed half of the state’s medical facilities and supplies.
Speaking to reporters recently, Dr. Bukar Bintube, a consultant pulmonologist at the Borno Chest Diseases Centre, stated, “According to the WHO, the rate at which tuberculosis is spreading in Borno State is out of control, particularly in Northern Borno.”
This is not implausible given the Boko Haram insurgency, which drove people from their ancestral areas and brought hardships and low socioeconomic conditions with it.
Dr. Bintube went on, “We looked into it and discovered that there is not enough medical staff in Northern Borno because we noticed that the majority of patients with chest illnesses come from that region.
There is a severe lack of medical workers in the area.
Dr. Bintube disclosed that the health institution receives 40 to 50 new and old TB patients every Monday, the most of them are from Northern Borno, but he would not disclose the precise number of TB patients in the state.
The reporter noted that this is quite reminiscent to the scene at other secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities around the state.
The Consultant Pulmonologist bemoaned and asked why there were still fresh TB cases in the state. We are currently concerned about the new cases.
Why are new cases necessary? It indicates that the rate of poverty in the community is high.
This indicates that the illness is affecting more people than anticipated, the speaker stated.
Therefore, he recommended that in addition to giving the Centre more equipment, the state government should also fully equip and hire more people in all local government healthcare delivery institutions so that they can address the prevalence of tuberculosis in impoverished rural communities.
Dr. Bintube bemoaned the lack of sufficient medication and said that, since Governor Zulum ordered the state Ministry of Health to supply pharmaceuticals to the institution in 2020, no government body has contacted the centre to supply drugs.
The majority of the medications we have been receiving come from the Leprosy and TB Control Programme in the Netherlands.
We also have a screening machine from WHO,” the pulmonologist added.
He urged all parties involved in the health sector, particularly state and federal lawmakers from the Northern Borno Senatorial District, to work with the state government to address the issue.
Speaking about his experience with TB, Bukar Bulama, a motorbike rider in Bulumkutu Kasuwa, Jere LG, said that at the beginning of the crisis, he mistook his symptoms for a fever or the flu.
“When I first noticed the symptoms more than five months ago, I assumed it was just a slight cough and fever or illness.
My situation got so bad that a friend informed me that it was just hungry.
As things worsened, I had a fever and extreme leg weakness, and I was brought to this location (the Centre) right away. “I think I’m fully recovered now,” he said with assurance.
He continued, “I am just taking the drugs for the mandatory six-month period to elapse,” in an attempt to further clarify.
Halima Modu, of Gomari Costain, Maiduguri city, recovered from tuberculosis but relapsed after a year or so because she didn’t follow the doctor’s advise on what to do and what not to do to prevent getting the disease.
“I had TB more than a year ago, but I re-infected, partially because of poverty and, to be honest, mostly because I disregarded the hospital’s advise.
I’ve been interacting with a lot of family members and friends, the majority of them are impoverished, and I didn’t mind at all sitting next to them at weddings, especially when they were coughing.
I’m not sure where I got it again, but I think it might have been at one of these events.
If I have to admit, I suffered greatly when I got TB again, and this time, the misery was worse.
Halima has been on medication for almost three months, and she is keen to finish her course of therapy by the end of March.
“I will strictly heed the dos and don’ts now, which I already know,” vowed a fifty-year-old widow to herself.
“I will hardly afford meat or fish, so I hardly eat more than beans at gatherings where I cannot trust the health of the people I mingle with.
Musa Usman, 34, a first-time patient at London-ciki, has been receiving TB therapy for around two months.
About three months ago, I experienced a terrible fever, cough, and weakness in my limbs. I didn’t realise that I also had slight respiratory difficulties and a cough, so I misdiagnosed my condition as severe pile.
One of my pals didn’t realise that I might have gotten tuberculosis till the day I coughed up blood-tinged cough.
He mentioned his older sister’s experience at the Ruwan Zafi ward, who has since recovered from the illness.
I was too weak to go to the Maryam Abacha Hospital by myself, so he drove me there. ..
My spit was inspected and my chest ex-ray was obtained; it was established that I had contracted tuberculosis.
“At first, I believed I had an incurable illness, but the hospital staff reassured me that it could be cured, just like any other disease, and that I would be well in six months if I took the prescribed medication and followed my diet exactly.”
Usman acknowledged that his respiration was improving and that he was quickly regaining power in his limbs.
The center’s chemist, Hassana Adamu, verified that the bacilli (bacteria) that causes tuberculosis (TB) are spreading more widely in Borno State as a result of poverty.
Adamu expressed his worries about individuals who went back to the clinic for treatment, claiming that their obstinacy and lack of knowledge were the main causes of their recurrence of the illnesses.
“Most patients who are cured still contract the disease again, most likely as a result of inadequate awareness,” Adamu stated.
She voiced her complaints, saying, “Many of the patients don’t take the administered drugs strictly as prescribed.”
Hassana said, “The state is seeing an increase in infections as a result of poverty.”
When the bacillus finds a person who is hungry, it spreads throughout the body until it lands in the lungs.
She clarified that the two stages of tuberculosis therapy are the intensive care phase, during which the patient takes medication for two months, and the continuation phase, during which the patient takes medication for four months to finish the six-month course of treatment.
“Medications for tuberculosis are free,” she said.
With the dire scenario, the Chairman of the Borno State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof. Bukar Bakki harped on the need for improved public awareness across the state to ease early detection and successfully limit the spread of TB.