Experts at the National TB and Leprosy Programme (NTLP) of Uganda estimate that there are 60,000 patients living with tuberculosis (TB) in Uganda.
In 2014, according to the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, Uganda was among the 22 high TB burden countries in the world – those which have a high number of TB cases.
An estimated 4,000 Ugandans die of TB per year, according to experts at the NTLP. A major challenge in tackling TB in Uganda is how to cure ignorance about the disease. A study by USAID Defeat TB project, for example, found that:
“There was a significant association between gender and not knowing how TB spreads from one person to another with more women indicating that they do not know how TB spreads.”
USAID Defeat TB
This finding of ignorance of how TB is transmitted is indeed deducible from Uganda TB survivors’ testimonies.
By Ms. Norah Owaraga, Managing Director CPAR Uganda Ltd; and a Cultural Anthropologist researching tuberculosis in Uganda.
CPAR Uganda Ltd 