Integrated Youth Needs and Welfare (INTYON), in collaboration with the Bongo District Health Directorate, has intensified tuberculosis (TB) and HIV screening across communities in the Bongo District, including Bongo Soe and Feo, as part of efforts to raise awareness, educate residents and ensure early treatment.
Timothy Aposiyine Nsoh, executive director of INTYON, said the organisation conducts TB screening almost every month, supported by volunteers who go house to house and conduct community-wide outreach. HIV testing, he noted, is organised occasionally and is sometimes added to TB screening activities.
“At any time we have TB screening, we sometimes add HIV testing to it,” Nsoh said. “During the Farmers’ Day celebration in Bongo-Feo under the Soe Sub-district, over 60 people were tested for HIV and nearly 40 were screened for TB.”
He said HIV results would be returned to individuals by health workers, while TB sputum samples would be sent to the laboratory for analysis. Any positive cases, he added, would be followed up immediately and placed on treatment.
“TB is an airborne disease, and in dusty areas such as mining zones or communities where people engage in ‘galamsey,’ the risk is higher. Early detection allows us to start treatment before it becomes severe,” Nsoh said.
Samuel Tang, the district disease control officer, said uptake for HIV testing in the Feo community was encouraging, though no positive cases had been detected so far. “For TB, we are collecting sputum samples to send to the laboratory for testing. Until the results come back, we cannot determine how many are positive,” he said.
Tang noted that the district records TB cases every year, with numbers rising slightly, but stressed the situation remains under control. “We have scattered cases all over the district, but it is manageable,” he said.
INTYON and the Bongo District Health Directorate say they remain committed to regular TB and HIV screening, community sensitisation and timely treatment follow-ups to curb the spread of disease in the district.
Source: A1 Radio | 101.1Mhz | Keziah Porepaya Nsoh | Bongo
