By John Bulus
Gombe State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Kennedy Ishaya has expressed optimism that the war against Tuberculoses, TB in the state will be won soon.

He said that with the increased commitment of the state government and the availability of funds articulated in 2012 budget, the menace of TB will be effectively tackled.

In a press conference in Gombe, the Commissioner whose speech was read by his representative and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Alhaji Umaru Gurama said “with the current commitment of Gombe State government under Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo towards effective Health care delivery and specifically towards the control of Tuberculosis, HIV, malaria and polio ( the commonest infectious diseases) with assistance from the International Donor Organization, I am optimistic that in the next few years to come, TB will cease to be a public health problem in Gombe state.

This is evident by the release of about 15 million naira as counter-part funding to Netherlands Leprosy Relief and the approval of 2012 budget of 20 million for TB control in the state”.

The Commissioner also revealed that “there was estimated 3, 870 cases of TB in Gombe State in 2011 of which about half are the most infectious form”.

He however hinted that “in Gombe state, there is an increased access to TB diagnosis and treatment with the expansion of treatment centers from 23 in 2004 to 94 at the end of 2011 and diagnostic centers from 8 to 24 over the same period.

“Availability of free drugs and testing services also increased the level of TB awareness amongst the populace leading to early reporting and improved linkage between TB and HIV programmes resulting in good prognosis of the two diseases as well as continuous training and retraining of various cadres of health workers”.

Dr. Ishaya also said that Gombe has acquired the latest Diagnostic machine called “GENE XPERT” stationed at Gombe Specialist hospital.

According to him, the machine takes only a short time in detecting TB and its resistant strains.

Also briefing the press, the officer in charge of education and enlightenment programme unit of the Ministry, Mrs. Hajara said that activities lined up to mark this year’s World TB Week included Street and community campaigns, Public drama at markets square amongst others.