Ojok says during the campaign that included activities like contact tracing and investigations of contacts of index TB patients and community TB hotspot screening, they screened 5,501 community members.
Over 372
people in Gulu have been initiated on the Tuberculosis Preventive -TB Therapy
after getting in contact with TB patients. 158 out of these are children under five
years of age while 214 were previously listed for the preventive therapy after
getting in contact with TB patients but don’t present with any TB signs and
symptoms.
Jacob Ojok, the Gulu District TB Focal Point Person told URN
in an interview that the 372 people were discovered during the ‘Tuberculosis
Catch UP Campaign’ conducted between May 24th and 30th. He says the
preventive therapy shall take six months. Ojok says during the campaign that
included activities like contact tracing and investigations of contacts of
index TB patients and community TB hotspot screening, they screened 5,501
community members.
He says 1,240 presented with the signs and symptoms of TB
had their samples tested. He revealed that 79 out of the 1,240 community
members tested positive and were immediately initiated on TB treatment. Ojok revealed that they are still waiting for the other test
results since 4 out of 18 health facilities that collected the samples have not
yet submitted their reports to his office.
The latest TB positive cases in Gulu
bring to 1,000, the number of TB positive cases registered in the district
since January this year. According to Ojok, they also traced 56 TB patients who
disappeared between April and September last year due to the COVID -19 pandemic. He said 46 of them have since resumed TB treatment. Clara
Oloya, the in –Charge of Aywee Health Center III in Pece –Laroo Division, says
that the health facility with assistance from the Ministry of Health trained 12
Village Health Team –VHTs and 5 health workers to collect samples from the
community.
According to Oloya, between May 28th and 29th, the team collected
144 samples, 11 of which were found positive and immediately initiated on
treatment. William Onyai, the Gulu District Health Educator, says there
were dozens of TB patients on treatment before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak
but a lot of them abandoned treatment during the nationwide lockdown to contain
the spread of COVID -19.
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Onyai revealed that TB contact tracing will continue. He asked
the community to observe the Standard Operating Procedures to avoid contracting
COVID -19 since they also help curb the spread of TB.
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According to reports from Gulu District Health Department, the district has
failed to meet its treatment target of 80 percent for the last three years due
to lack of adherence to medication, missed appointment and the fact that some
patients transfer their treatment centers without letters making it hard to
trace them.
Gulu District registers between 1,200 and 1,500 TB cases
annually, which is way beyond the expected 900 cases. This is because the
district directed its attention and effort to fight HIV/AIDS after its
prevalence rose to 14 percent. TB remains one of the world’s deadliest
infectious killers.
Each day, nearly 4,000 lose their lives to TB and close to
28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global
efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 63 million lives since the year
2000.