A Remarkable Story of Recovery: Building Leaders and Advocates For TB/HIV
Thirteen-year-old Tinuke (not real name) had been ill for a while with a persistent cough, fever and progressive weight loss. When she sought medical evaluation at the Massey Street Children’s Hospital, one of several hospitals in Lagos supported by the US. Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV/AIDS Services (SIDHAS) project, a presumptive diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) was made by the clinical staff and she was asked to do some investigations. These investigations included a sputum GeneXpert assay as well as a blood test for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The HIV test returned positive which meant that Tinuke was infected with HIV. During post-test counseling, she revealed that she had known her HIV status for a while now and had even been on treatment with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, but had stopped treatment several months before her current illness. (more…)
READ MOREWorld Health Worker Week 2018
Health workers – nurses, midwives, community health workers, pharmacists, peer counselors, doctors, pharmacists, and other cadres – working at the facility and community, are usually the first point of contact for people who need health services. (more…)
READ MOREMy Value…More Than A Day
I stared in confusion as I watched girls in their teens throng into that large WAPI (West African People’s Institute) College hall situated in the center of Calabar, Cross River State. They came in and sat down even though nothing seemed to be happening, at least not yet but for a few colorful drop-down banners of various non-governmental organizations standing on the elevated stage. (more…)
READ MORENigeria joins the world in commemorating World Tuberculosis Day 2018
Today, March 24, Nigeria joins the world to commemorate the World Tuberculosis Day (WTBD) 2018, marked each year to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease. (more…)
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