As the global community observes the annual World Tuberculosis Day 2024, the Nigerian Medical Students Association (NiMSA) in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Institute of Human Virology and MobiHealth International embarked on a medical outreach on Tuberculosis in Odi-olowo community, Mushin, Lagos State, Nigeria.
The event was held to commemorate World Tuberculosis Day with the theme “Yes we can end TB”, involved free screening and tests, physical and online consultations, and awareness about the infectious disease called Tuberculosis
Speaking on the importance of the exercise, the Regional Director for Medical Outreach NiMSA, South-West, Edobor Faith Abayemotu, explained that the event is aimed at creating awareness about the deadly disease that has claimed millions of lives, seeing that Nigeria still falls under the 30 high-burden countries with the disease.
Miss Edobor further noted that the outreach is expected to educate people on the mode of transmission of the disease, possible ways to identify someone having the disease as well as prevention, management, and treatment of the disease.
According to Miss Edobor, the ceremony marking World Tuberculosis Day serves as both a celebration and a call to action hence the need for an outreach after weeks of meticulous planning and collaboration to ensure the outreach is impactful.
“Over 500 citizens were screened and tested across the Southwest states of Nigeria,” Miss Edobor revealed.
The Regional Director for Medical Outreach South-West Region highlighted the collective efforts involved, stating, “Today’s achievement is a testament to what can be accomplished when communities and organizations come together with a common goal. Access to proper health care is a basic human right, and it’s at the core of our mission to ensure that this right is upheld.”
Miss Edobor further explained the need for regular checkups as a practice to ensure the proper well-being of individuals and to prevent escalation of diseases that can be easily tackled at an early stage.
Health experts present also advised against self-medication practices noting that if coughs persist after a while, especially after medications, timely visits should be made to the hospital for checkups and proper diagnosis, explaining that blood-stained coughs are one of the notable signs of tuberculosis.
In addition to providing access to health care through getting screened and tested for Tuberculosis, the Medical Outreach initiative included educational sessions by health experts geared towards enlightening residents of the community present at the event.
The outreach focused on screening the community members for Tuberculosis as the Mobi Health International CEO, Fumi Adewara, and the team were on ground to conduct physical and online consultations with residents present at the outreach.
The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive, as residents present at the outreach were filled with smiles and gratitude as they thanked the organizers of the outreach for the welcome initiative.
Eyewitnesses shared touching accounts of the day’s events while noting the profound impact of the Medical outreach’s work on their community.
CDA Chairman of Olomowewe, Odi-olowo community, Mr Segun Adeleye expressed heartfelt gratitude for the efforts made to put together the outreach on their behalf while lauding the initiative.
“It was a great opportunity to partake in this exercise. We are very grateful to the Nigerian Medical Students, Mobi Health international, and also the NIMR team for bringing this outreach to our community and we pray that God will bless them,” Mr Adeleye remarked
