Wife of the Ogun State Governor, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, has revealed that Ogun State had taken drastic measures to mitigate the prevalence of Tuberculosis (TB) in the State.
Mrs. Abiodun stated this during the year 2025 World Tuberculosis Day in Abeokuta, with the theme: ‘Yes! We can end TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver’, Saying Tuberculosis was one of the major causes of death, an airborne disease with no gender discrimination or respect for social status.
She revealed that, Ogun State had over 600 DOTS sites for TB services across the 20 Local Government Areas of the State through network of 16 Gene Expert machines sites and over 70 microscopy sites, saying TB diagnosis had remained free to patients.
The First Lady stressed that, the State had equipped health facilities with free TB services, in consideration for the less privileged in the society, adding that those with low socio-economic status were more vulnerable to the disease.
“Ogun State has been quite innovative in this regard by increasing access to prevention and treatment, reducing stigmatisation and discrimination as well as build accountability. It is curable, a large percentage of cases had been successfully treated’, she said.
Mrs. Abiodun, said collaboration with Private Health Practitioners, Patent Medicine Vendors and Community Pharmacists, as key stakeholders would help in mitigating the spread, enjoining them to be more painstaking in the discharge of their duties and obtain information about patients’ cough history, make effective use of modern diagnostic services provided by Gene Expert Machines to ensure diagnosis in general.
She called on religious leaders to be part of the crusade against TB by encouraging their followers to visit health facilities in suspected cases, not leaving out the Media organisations whose roles were to disseminate TB messages to the general public.
Mrs. Abiodun advised anyone with cough lasting for 2 weeks to present himself or herself to health facilities for free tests and treatment as an untreated TB case would infect 20 new persons, noting that all persons living with or in close contact with a TB patient must be screened.
