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Uganda: Country, U.S., Pepfar Take Stock of Fight Against Tuberculosis
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East African Business Week (Kampala)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
Ben Moses Ilakut
Kampala
The US government and President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief- Uganda (PEPFAR) this week join the Uganda government and international and local partners in commemorating World Tuberculosis (TB) Day.
The commemoration comes against the background that worldwide, deaths from TB have declined since 1990, but the disease continues to claim more than 1.6 million lives each year. With HIV/AIDS claiming over 2 million lives each year, and malaria killing more than 1 million, TB is one of the three leading causes of deaths worldwide due to infectious diseases. About 10 % of TB patients are also co-infected with HIV, and TB is the leading cause of death for AIDS patients.
In Uganda, tuberculosis and malaria have been cited as a lethal combination, especially for patients infected with HIV/AIDS.
According to a prèss release sent to East African Business Week, between 2000 and 2007, USAID provided nearly $600 million for TB programs worldwide, including about $166 million directed specifically for Africa. In the financial year 2007, USAID provided $5 million to the STOP TB Partnership's Global TB Drug Facility (GDF), an important mechanism that provides drugs to countries in need, including many countries in Africa. USAID funding to the GDF will triple to $15 million in FY 2008.
The US Government also supports TB control worldwide through funding provided to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GF), and is the largest single donor to the GF, with pledges exceeding $2.1 billion through 2008, according to the release. Seventeen percent of support for the Global Fund has been dedicated to TB work.
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The release also shows that in Uganda, USAID is helping to fight TB in three ways: enhancing the capacity of the National TB Program to guide and monitor TB activities, strengthening district and sub-district capacity to implement Community-Based DOTS (CB-DOTS) and Community-Based TB Care; and strengthening and scaling up the implementation of TB/HIV collaborative activities.
USAID began its support to the National TB and Leprosy Program (NTLP) in 2001 by helping extend CB-DOTS to all districts; strengthening district-level CB-DOTS; and increasing case detection and treatment success rates.
In the runner up to the commemoration, USAID/Uganda mission director, Ms. Margot Ellis said, "Even though a cure has existed for more than half a century, tuberculosis remains one of humankind's greatest scourges. Today, as we commemorate World TB Day we are correctly reminded that TB Anywhere is TB Everywhere. Until we as partners have effectively brought TB under control in Uganda we are all at risk. We must work together to improve early detection of TB cases, improve treatment success rates and ensure that all TB patients receive HIV/AIDS Counseling and Testing. We must also ensure that all patients co-infected with TB and HIV/AIDS receive the care and treatment for both diseases and that drugs for treating these conditions are readily available. USAID is fully committed to doing our part in this effort."
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