Uganda: Shs534 billion needed to eradicate TB - official
Kampala, November 2, 2015 — The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Programme (NTLP) needs government to invest about Shs534b for a five-year tuberculosis programme if the country is to eliminate the disease.
According to Dr Frank Mugabe, the NTLP progromme manager, the country is grappling with more than 60,000 TB patients, out of which only 47,000 are being detected while about 13,000 patients remain undiagnosed thus spreading the airborne disease to other persons.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) data indicates that Uganda is one of the 22 high TB burden countries in the world.
"Our priority interventions are not being implemented the way we want because of limited funding, therefore, we are at crossroads," Dr Magabe said in an interview.
He added that failure to identify and manage TB patients has led to the emergence of a more complicated form of the disease known as multidrug-resistance (MDR-TB) and TB/HIV co-infected patients, which is expensive to treat.
He said the national TB programme depends on donor funding with government only committing about Shs90 million annually, which is released in small portions.
Dr Mugabe was speaking at the sidelines of a three-day National Annual TB Stakeholders conference in Mukono Town last week under the theme: "Re-engaging all stakeholders to end to tuberculosis epidemic in Uganda."
The Director General Health Services, Dr Jane Aceng, admitted that the Heath ministry is faced with a challenge of planning but called upon technical people to plan better.
Source: Daily Monitor
