The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Masaka, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Masaka Regional Referral Hospital is conducting vigorous community screening for tuberculosis-TB due to the persistent increase in infections registered at the facility.
Doctor James Eriama, the Masaka Hospital Medical Director, expresses concern about a rare trend of TB infections among the usual patients who seek services at the hospital, hence the need for a strategic response to the threat.
He says that besides the already enrolled patients who go for drug refills at their designated clinic, the hospital is currently registering at least six new TB cases, identified from the general patients’ population at the different wards.
Dr Eriama observes the figures point to a bigger infection burden in the community that remains unattended to, and freely spreading.
He explains that the apparent threat has compelled management to widen screening services both within and outside the hospital, such that the infections are detected and managed early enough, to contain the further spread of the virus.
Dr Eriama says that they have also asked District Health Officers in the greater Masaka sub-region, to encourage health workers in their respective areas of jurisdiction to include TB screening on the priority list of services they offer to patients.
He indicates that working with the Ministry of Health’s regional TB and Leprosy Control Program Coordination team, they have also started mapping out most at-risk communities such that they can concentrate interventions in such areas.
In some areas such as the landing sites and congested slums, the teams are considering carrying out spontaneous screening such that people can know their statuses, to ease the management of the situation.
He urges the public to be vigilant about any suspicious signs of the infection and seek medical support before their conditions worsen.
Elizabeth Nyirazihaawe, the Ministry of Health Supervisor of the TB and Leprosy Control Program in charge of greater Masaka, reveals that the unprecedented increase in infection rates was noticed starting October last year, and the trend is yet to be reserved.
She says that on top of conducting mass sensitization exercises, they now put on alert all Village Health Teams, to support the process of tracing for people who have had contact with the confirmed cases.
Nyirazihaawe indicates that their preliminary findings suggest the problem could have been spurred by the intervention vacuum, which was created by the transition period when Rakai Health Sciences Program-RHSP was phasing out its operations to hand over to the US-funded Center for Diseases Control and Prevention-CDC program.
“The former winded up its operations before the government was fully empowered to take over all the responsibility, and before the CDC took over, there had been a vacuum in the supply of drugs, screening services, and sensitization campaigns. But with the renewed efforts by different stakeholders, there is hope that that situation will be contained,” she says.
*****
URN
