9 September 2008
Zamfara — No fewer than 220 people in Zamfara State, have been infected by Tuberculosis(TB) in the last three months. Dr Ibrahim Bature, the state TB and Leprosy Control Officer, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Gusau.
According to him, Birnin Magaji Local Government area has the highest average of 25 cases monthly. Bature said the infected persons who tested positive in some of the designated hospitals are now receiving medical attention.
The disease, he said, was communicable, adding that migrants from Niger Republic caused the rise, particularly in border communities, adding that drugs were available in all the 66 TB centres in the state.
"The availability of anti-TB drugs in our centres across the 14 local government areas make patients to come out en masse for the test to fight the disease," he said. A source told NAN that at least three cases are recorded every week in the state's hospitals.
In a related development, tuberculosis patients have lamented the inadequacy of drugs in the TB centres. NAN reports that though the drugs were supposed to be given freely, it was often unavailable.
Some patients, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN in Gusau, that after they were tested positive, they were told that there were no drugs and were directed to a chemist in Gusau metropolis.
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