The Rivers State government, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and other partners, has presented a total of 46 motorcycles to tuberculosis supervisors and their deputies in the 23 local government areas of the state.
Presenting the motorcycles to the tuberculosis supervisors and their deputies in Port Harcourt on Thursday, the state’s Commissioner of Health, Dr. Adaeze Oreh, said the efforts were geared towards ensuring that the state was free from cases of tuberculosis.
Oreh, who stated that the aim was to enable them reach the hard-to-reach areas of the state, also said the donation was geared towards ensuring that the state which is currently ranked third in the country in tuberculosis eradication, gets to the first position.
He said: “We have just unveiled 46 motorcycles that has been handed over officially to the 23 local government areas of Rivers State Tuberculosis Supervisors and their deputies.
“These motorbikes have been donated in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme, The Global Fund and other partners towards eradicating tuberculosis and other infectious diseases in Rivers State.
“We are particularly excited because we know that the provision of these motorcycles will assist greatly, tuberculosis supervisors in each of our local government areas to carryout active surveillance in the communities.
“We know that tuberculosis is a problem in the communities but what gladdens us is that the efforts of the State Tuberculosis Treatment Programme have yielded significant fruit over the years.
“As at today, Rivers State has been acknowledged nationally by the Federal Ministry of Health as the number 3 in the states effort to eradicate tuberculosis in the country and we want to render the state free of tuberculosis.
“We have a 96 per cent treatment success rate from our treatment centres in the state. So we know that with these motorcycles, they would even reach more people and get more people from our communities on treatment and even increase our treatment success rate to what we have gathered and if possible, get us to one hundred percent. So it’s a very exciting day for us.
“I commend the Rivers State Tuberculosis Control Programme Team, Rivers State Ministry of Health Department of Public Health, Disease and Control. I commend them for the efforts they have made so far and I charge them to continue doing excellently well and continue putting Rivers State on the national and global map of efforts to eradicate tuberculosis from our state.”
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