WHO partners Information Ministry on TB, NCDs eradication

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has expressed the readiness of his ministry to partner the World Health Organisation (WHO) in combating Tuberculosis (TB) and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in the country.

The minister stated this on Monday in Abuja when a WHO delegation led by Dr Jean Maire Dangou paid him an advocacy visit.

He assured the delegation that with the commitment of Nigeria to the UN Health For All Programme, the ministry would deploy all relevant platforms to disseminate WHO programmes in tackling the diseases.

He specifically noted that all government information disseminating organs would work with WHO in the necessary advocacy toward eradicating TB and NCDs.

Mohammed said he had directed organs such as the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), and News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to propagate WHO plans of action at eradicating the diseases.

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NAN reports that heads of all the parastatal agencies attended the meeting, where the minister told the WHO delegation to make contents available to the agencies for dissemination using their platforms.

Earlier, Dangou said the advocacy visit was a follow up to the commitment made by President Muhammadu Buhari to eradicate TB and address NCDs during the last UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

He said that the team was in Nigeria to meet with relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors to translate the commitment to action.

Dangou underscored the importance of information dissemination in the protection of people from both communicable diseases and NCDs.

He said that awareness was key in the treatment and eradication of TB and NCDs and urged the minister to support the efforts of the world health body in information dissemination toward combating the diseases.

NAN