National Orientation Agency(NOA) in Bauchi State will soon embark on a sensitization campaign in all nooks and crannies of the state on Public Health Importance of Non Communicable Diseases: spotlight on hypertension, diabetes, and kidney diseases, with special emphasis on the need for people to undergo annual kidney screening for earlier diagnosis and intervention as preventive measures against CKD.
The State Director of the Agency Alhaji Nuru Yusuf Kobi announced this at a sensitization workshop on Public Health organized by the Agency in collaboration with ITEC Consultancy Services held in Zaranda Hotel Bauchi.
Alhaji Nuru Kobi disclosed that the workshop was designed to look into the causes of the diseases with a view to finding lasting solutions.
According to him, considering the number of the people died as a result of impact of the disease, there is the need for the people to imbibe the culture of regular check up in order to know their status.
The State NOA Director therefore appealed to the participants to make good use of the knowledge acquired during the workshop towards addressing the challenges facing members of the society.
In a remark, a guest speaker at the occasion, who is an Medical Expert from the Department of Community Medicine of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi Dr. Sani Danbam called for strengthening of Primary Healthcare Centers to incorporate screening and treatment of non communicable diseases.
Dr. Sani Danbam who described weak Health System, Poverty and emphasis on clinical medicine as some of the challenges facing health sector, called on government to address the situation to achieve Universal Healthcare coverage.
Earlier, the Managing Director ITEC Consultancy Service Malam Abdulwaheeb Ademola Abdulwahab remarked that unlike before, cases of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are increasing in Africa as a result of increase incident of hypertension and diabetes both of which are culprit and victims of kidney disease. Therefore, strategies to combat kidney and other non communicable diseases in the society must include knowing the causes of the diseases and health education among others, hence the need to create public health awareness.