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BIRNIN-KEBBI – As part of its efforts to equip health care workers at primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities, the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment, NICRAT, has trained no fewer than 46 health workers on the early detection of hepatitis and chronic liver cancer in patients.
The two days capacity building was aimed at contemporary and cutting-edge knowledge for them to perform optimally by delivering quality diagnosis and care to those in need.
Declaring the workshop open, the Director General of the agency, Professor Usman Malami Aliyu, said NICRAT is a federal government agency under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare that has the mandates of exercising national leadership in Cancer research, treatment, prevention and control in Nigeria.
Represented by a Consultant of the agency, Dr Nandi Ishaya Tokkit, the DG said, since its inception in early 2023, NICRAT has initiated various strategies aimed at reducing the burden of all forms of cancers in Nigeria.
“One of such strategies is organising training and retraining for healthcare workers on various aspects of cancer care, prevention, treatment and control, with the most recent being training of biomedical engineers and medical physicists across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
“The theme of this training, “Early detection and management of chronic hepatitis and liver cancer,” is very apt and timely, considering the high incidences of hepatitis and liver cancers across our healthcare facilities in Nigeria.
“The training is therefore aimed at equipping health workers with the requisite knowledge to detect such health conditions early for proper treatment. We believe that early detection is key to successful treatment.”
He, however, commend the massive support from the Sokoto State Government through the Ministry of Health, especially for opening doors of collaboration to ensure effective and efficient healthcare service delivery in the state.
Sokoto state team lead for the capacity building, Dr Aliyu Samaila Musawa, said the training is meant for primary and secondary health care workers.
He said the programme which was in collaboration with Sokoto State ministry of health comprises of 23 medical officers and primary health care workers from the twenty three local governments area of the state.
“We intend to train forty six health workers across the 23 local governments area in the state.
“The key objective of the training is to build the capacity at both the secondary and primary health care facilities to help them with requisite knowledge of detecting and managing chronic hepatitis B and C.
“It is also aimed at detecting early liver cancer so as to reduce the mortality rate associated with it.”
Dr Musawa, however, appealed to the participants to pay utmost attention to the training so as to go back home with some message to step down the training to their colleagues.
