TB burden is still notably high with the identification rate below 70%. Treatment success is still too low and declining, loss at follow up, and death rates remain alarmingly high and vary dramatically across the regions in Uganda. TB indicators show that the quality of TB services is still too weak to respond to the current health needs in Uganda. 58% of people with symptoms relating to TB (cough and fever) seek care from private sector, 34% in public health centre IIIs and only 5% in Health Centre IVs (HC IVs) and General Hospitals (GHs). However only 2% of private facilities have diagnostic facility for TB (Microscopy). Where the facilities are more available the care seeking is at most 5%. This is a clear indication of the service gap especially in the private sector. 36% of facilities have diagnostic services for TB, the greatest portion of these being in the public sector and a paltry fraction in the private. Most public facilities from Health Centre III and most Private Not for Profit facilities at a minimum Health Centre IV level have first line medicines for TB in stock, with fewer having second line medicines. Similarly, only 36% of facilities have available TB treatment. When it comes to Drug susceptible TB, in some regions’ treatment coverage remains sub-optimal with just 60% of the annual incident TB cases diagnosed and reached with TB treatment. Loss to follow-up stands at 13%, death 9%, and failures 2%. Treatment success among children is equally low at 69%, 40% of the TB patients are co-infected with HIV. It is for this reason that Foundation for Development Partner Launched Good Health Project-3 - (GHP-3) Ending TB in Uganda consortium initiative comes into play to bring about the changes below in the target areas of intervention;
WHAT WE DO
- Improving the quality of community-level health services for the screening, treatment, follow up of patients affected by drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB.
- Strengthening Health-facility based screening.
- Treatment and follow up of patients with drug sensitive tuberculosis.
- Improve the coordination of district health authorities to improve the quality of screening, treatment and follow-up services, including pharmaceutical supply and stock management.
- Building the capacity of the Community Health Teams and Multi- Sectoral and Private sector engagement.