Calls for anti-TB drive in Western Uganda

Submitted by kyeswa johnson m (johni) about 8 months ago

Local leaders from western Uganda convened in Mbarara District to discuss the increasing number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in the region and have vowed to increase campaigns to fight the disease.

Health officers in Mbarara, one of the fastest growing districts in Uganda, found TB cases in Mbarara and neighboring districts were increasing at the same rate as HIV/AIDS. This therefore calls for massive campaigns to sensitize the masses on how to prevent and treat TB in their districts.

According to research, TB is one of the leading killer diseases in Uganda but in many instances it is given less attention by people, even though it is a curable disease.

Leaders unanimously agreed to boost the campaign against TB alongside HIV/AIDS so that people’s lives are saved. Dr. Kaguna Moses, a senior doctor in Mbarara, advised people to visit hospitals for TB screening, especially when they are experiencing long bouts of coughing and/or when coughing up sputum containing blood.

He said some patients experience persistent fever for more than three weeks without knowing the cause. In many cases it is TB. He noted TB is still a serious concern worldwide which claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year.

“We must not relax. While handling HIV/AIDS let TB also be on the agenda because it has been proved that people living with HIV/AIDS are most likely to have TB also” he said.

He also noted that the Government of Uganda has no budget for TB prevention even though it is a killer disease. “We lose our relatives, friends, and loved ones to TB but little has been done to avert the pandemic” Dr Moses said.

Uganda ranks 16 on the list of 22 high-burden TB countries (which are responsible for 80% of global TB cases). In 2007, the country had almost 102,000 new TB cases, with an estimated incidence rate of 330 cases per 100,000 population.

The DOTS strategy (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course) is the internationally recommended strategy for TB control. Its case detection and treatment success rates, of 51 and 70 per cent respectively, for new sputum smear-positive (SS+) cases are still below the World Health Organization’s global targets, of 70 and 85 per cent respectively.

These low rates are mainly due to insufficient case reporting, non-adherence to TB treatment, poor access to health care services and a limited number of skilled staff and diagnostic facilities.

In addition to these challenges, Uganda has the highest default rate of any high-burden country.

Meanwhile, according to UNAIDS the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Uganda is 6.4 per cent. But collaborative TB-HIV/AIDS activities are expanding slowly.

In 2006, only one-quarter of TB patients were tested for HIV. According to WHO, around 38.7 percent of new TB patients are HIV positive.

Therefore there is a serious need to review TB strategies so that people can understand the severity of TB and know how to prevent it. Uganda needs to refocus and allocate funds towards more TB campaigns.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS TB tuberculosis Uganda WHO

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