The Minister of State for Health in Charge of General Duties, Hon. Sarah Opendi, has urged Ugandans to unite and end Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy in Uganda. This was during the annual commemoration of the World TB day held at Atiri Primary School grounds in Tororo District under the theme “Unite to End TB” with the slogan “Find the missing cases”.

Echoing the day’s theme Hon Opendi pointed out that “TB is one of the killer diseases and through increased community outreach and surveillance, we can wipe it out of Uganda.” Indeed active surveillance and community involvement are some of the effective interventions emphasized by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Global TB Strategy.

Hon. Opendi recognized the tremendous work done by partners in tackling TB in Uganda noting that with support from partners; diligence of health workers to find and treat TB cases; and involvement of the communities, TB will be tackled effectively.

WHO was represented at the function by Dr. Abel Nkolo,  National Professional Officer/TB  who  delivered remarks on behalf of the Acting WHO Representative in Uganda Dr. Tarande Constant Manzila. Using facts and figures from WHO, Dr. Manzila highlighted TB as one of the 10 causes of death worldwide.

“Notably, TB cases are falling globally, 10.4 million new cases were estimated by WHO to occur in 2015, although a third of these are still not diagnosed and treated by national TB control programmes.” he said.

Dr. Manzila   referred  to  2014 targets set by countries in  the African region  to reduce TB deaths by 75% and new TB cases by 50% by 2025, saying, for Uganda to achieve these targets, the country  should intensify efforts to reach, treat and cure everyone with TB which in turn will  immensely  contribute  to  achieving  Universal Health Coverage. 

The Tororo District Health Officer, Dr. David Okumu, reported that in 2016, the district was able to notify 412 cases, but over 400 cases remained undetected in the community. 

“59% of the detected cases started and completed treatment and were declared cured, but this is still below the WHO target of achieving 85% of treatment outcomes,” he said.  Dr. Okumu committed the district health team to find the missing patients and start them on TB treatment to tackle the disease in Tororo district.

At the end of the commemoration, the Stop TB partnership and National TB and Leprosy Programme gave awards to districts that had done excellent work in tackling TB. Dokolo district was awarded for being the best performing district in the 2015 and 2016 cohorts, Ngora district was the best improved district in the same cohorts while Tororo district was awarded for organizing and hosting the national commemoration.

There were many  activities  at the event  with schools and drama groups performing advocacy theatrics to emphasize the need to reach and test every patient and start them on treatment to end TB in Uganda.  There were also support and

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Below :

01. Dr. Abel Nkolo (WHO National Professional Office-TB)  delivered remarks on behalf of the WHO Representative in Uganda

02. HIV and TB testing services were also available at the commemoration

03. Hon. Opendi (red) hands the ‘Best Performing District’ award to Dokolo District chairperson, Mr. Frederick Odongo (seated) at the commemoration