The National Tuberculosis, Leprosy & Control Programme (NTBLCP) on Wednesday tasked the federal government, stakeholders, CSOs that all hands must on deck to create awareness in curbing leprosy diseases across the country.
The National Coordinator, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike who noted this in Abuja at the One-day symposium on World Leprosy Day said Nigeria needs to join the global community to kick out leprosy.
The theme of the symposium is “The multi-dimensional impact of leprosy on the sufferers: The need to have the conversation now”.
He said the disease is becoming more worrisome because they realized that the disease is also spreading among children which is very embarrassing.
He said whenever one see an infection or a disease affecting the children, that means that there is an active spread of the disease.
He said there is so there is so much stigma and discrimination attached to it and “our priority is to engage the communities that is the sure way of getting the right information and reduce stigma and discrimination”.
“Unfortunately, there are several things attached to stigma and discrimination: first on the list is social exclusion, it comes with poverty and all because they don’t come out among people,” he said .
Also, the National Director of Leprosy Mission in Nigeria, Dr Sunday Udo explained that the World Leprosy Day symposium is aimed to create awareness adding that Leprosy is really not getting as much attention as one get and that is because it is only affecting the poorest of the poor.
“That is why TLM and other lead agencies are really poised to ensure that we don’t neglect them. We don’t leave them. We support them and work with them to improve their lives and ultimately defeat leprosy.
“We have a drug called Post Prophylaxis. It is a drug that we can give to anybody who comes in contact with anybody with leprosy and then within two years, you are protected.
“So every two years you get a pill that will protect you from catching the disease. Now, we want government to be able to pick up this particular intervention and make it national,” he said .
Also, the National Leprosy Goodwill Ambassador, Chief Chika Okpala also known as Chief Zebrudaya said there is need for sensitization about the disease and that it is curable.
“ If we are properly educated, then we start to stop this stigmatization that is rampant in Nigeria today.It’s unfortunate that the leaders that we have today think only of their pocket money and how to enrich themselves not about the vulnerable in the society,” he said.
