US Consul General, Visits Osogbo Central Hospital

William Stevens visited the hospital on Wednesday, Novemver 16th, 2022 as part of a tuberculosis overview programme to seek support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to fight against tuberculosis.

The program which was held in the hospital’s conference hall at Okebaale, was to seek the support of the USAID in order to get more facilities to cure tuberculosis, especially the machine that is used in diagnosing the illness.

He said, “We are here today to visit our local partners, USAID with the US government are supporting Nigeria to fight against tuberculosis as the country with the highest rate of tuberculosis in the world.

“We are working together to save lives and this hospital ,the central hospital Osogbo is one of our key partners ,we work together with the government and private hospitals to ensure that the patients are being screened and getting life saving treatments.”

According to the director of technical programs for USAID, Dr Olugbenga Kayode Daniel who also works with the institute of human viology Nigeria, Osun State is one of the four states to be supported under the project as the project was to find the missing tuberculosis cases in Nigeria.

Daniel stated that in the case finding, they started with 6000 in 2020 and has currently increased to 14,000 cases at the last review.

He said, “Osun state happens to be one of the four states that is been supported under the project and the whole of the projects is to find the missing case.

“Our strategies include facility support,we look for viable facilities in the state and provide support in intensify tuberculosis case finding that ensuring that 100 percent of all the hospital are screened for tuberculosis using the four clinical questions.

“And the benefit of that to the state is that since inception of the project which was in 2020 till now, Osun State has seen 100 percent increase in case finding. They started with 6000 in 2020 and currently ,as at the last review,over 14,000 cases have been found and infact this year is going to be the whole lot better in terms of achievement, thanks for the support from USAID”.

The medical director of Osogbo Central Hospital, Akin Ajayi, said over 3000 patients had been screened since the last six months, adding fifty patients have been identified having tuberculosis.

He however said they’ve all been on treatment right in the hospital and that 99 percent success have recorded about them.