John Ozima, the TB and leprosy Supervisor for Arua City, identified the health facilities that registered the new TB cases. He says that the cases were identified during the Community Awareness, Screening, and Testing (CAST) campaign.
Residents of Arua City have been advised to embrace early screening for Tuberculosis, TB, after at least 36 cases were registered in the City within one week.
John Ozima, the TB and leprosy Supervisor for Arua City, identified the health facilities that registered the new TB cases. He says that the cases were identified during the Community Awareness, Screening, and Testing (CAST) campaign.
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In October 2022, the Ministry of Health launched the TB CAST campaign to reduce the spread of the disease. The campaign involves moving door-to-door in communities, hotspot screening, and contact tracing.
Ozima said the several numbers identified in a week indicate the burden of the disease in the city, and advised the patients against first seeking support from witchdoctors and herbalists, saying it delays early diagnosis and treatment.
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TB is airborne and can be transmitted from an infected person to a neighbor through sneezing, coughing, laughing, and singing.
Ozima urged people with a persistent cough, clothe-soaking night sweats, loss of appetite and weight, and fever unaccompanied by malaria or bacterial infection for two weeks to screen for TB.
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Ozima also encouraged the communities to help in identifying close contacts of TB patients, so that they are put on TB Preventive Therapy. This medication prevents them from developing TB.
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TB affects several parts of the body, lungs, bones, brain, intestines, skin, kidneys, spine, heart, blood vessels, voice box, blood vessels, joints, and lymph nodes.
On March 25, Uganda marked World TB and Leprosy Day under the theme: "Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver," a rallying cry urging for urgency, accountability, and hope in the fight against TB.
Uganda is among the 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally. In 2021, the country reported an estimated 98,000 new TB cases, translating to an incidence rate of 227 cases per 100,000 population.
At least 30 people in Uganda die of TB daily, and 235 people get infected or diagnosed with TB every day, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.
