The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu CON has described advocacy on awareness and prevention of Tuberculosis as a priority for government at all levels of governance.
She also noted that every child deserves a chance at a healthy and fulfilling living where their potentials can be fully be harnessed and put into use for the their personal benefits and the society at large.
The First Lady disclosed these while speaking at a side event organized by Concordia at the ongoing 78th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Senator Tinubu spoke at two separate sessions on ‘Importance of Innovation Towards Achieving an AIDS-free Generation’; and ‘Health Standards and Investment Towards Effectively Financing the Eradication of Tuberculosis’.
She said, on both tuberculosis and AIDS in children, advocacy especially at the national, state and community levels would be pursued vigorously as Nigeria has no reason to have high statistics of prevalence in both areas.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu emphasized that with the heightened drive of the President Bola Tinubu administration in the health sector, she will be advocating enhanced actions by the wives of governors from the states of the Federation to take the campaign about awareness and prevention to the grassroot.
“Innovative approaches can be employed to develop effective methods for HIV prevention. Educational technology hubs, educational apps and digital platforms can all be used to disseminate accurate information specific to HIV care and control. Advancement in testing facilitates early detection and prompt linkage to care thus preventing progression and transmission.
“Creative and culturally tailored age-appropriate interventions using technology and social media, can promote and amplify safer sexual and reproductive practices,” she said.
The First Lady seized the opportunity to explain that in Nigeria, there is a robust programme for combating TB through the National TB and Leprosy Control Programme which is domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Health supervised by the Minister for Health.
She said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, has come up with the Renewed Hope Agenda and has emphasized severally, the commitment to restructure the health system in the country through improved financing, provision of modern equipment for diagnosis, capacity building, training of health care workers and transparency in governance as it regards TB response and health care delivery as a whole.
“We need to get people to speak up and know that early detection makes it treatable and we need to see that stigmatization is removed,” she said.
Other panelists included Dr Lucica Ditiu and Dr Jay Rajda who both harped on the need for sustainable partnerships and improved funding.
Senator Oluremi Tinubu was one of the panelists at strategies to advance global health standards and investments towards effectively financing the eradication of tuberculosis.
