Related Articles
BY RICHARD DRASIMAKU
ARUA CITY: FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2025
Tuberculosis and leprosy are two diseases which when left to advance to later stages are often confused with witchcraft, leading to further spread of infections and deaths due to poor handling.
As a result, Dr Alex Odama Alidria, the regional head of the TB and Leprosy program in West Nile has called for integrated infection control in order to curb TB and Leprosy which he said are more endemic in West Nile and Karamoja sub-regions of Uganda.
The goal is to reduce infections by 20% and eradiated the public health threat by 2030 in order to have a health community and ensure productive people, he said.
Dr Odama said police cells, court halls, prison facilities, the uniformed security service community and schools and drinking joints are some of the hotspots for spread of these infections and urged caution and preventive measures to be urgently instituted.
To this list, he added markets, churches, betting centers, bodaboda stages, restaurants and refugee settlements and congested slam areas in the city suburbs.
“You hear people coughing and you do not know what to do. People cough because they have already swallowed the aerosols,” he said.
Dr Odama clarified that both TB and leprosy are airborne diseases although some variant of TB can be contracted from eating poorly cooked meat or drinking unprocessed milk of an infected animal but this strain affects the bones and cannot be transmitted to another person.
The treatment for the diseases are available but when not timely managed, it can lead to multidrug resistant variant of TB and deformities of limps in case of leprosy.
This is a critical issue that needs more attention, especially in regions like West Nile and Karamoja. It’s alarming how diseases like TB and leprosy are still being misunderstood and linked to witchcraft, which only worsens the situation. Dr. Odama’s call for integrated infection control is a step in the right direction, but I wonder how feasible it is to implement these measures in such high-risk areas. The mention of hotspots like police cells, schools, and refugee settlements highlights the urgency of the problem. However, I’m curious about the specific preventive measures being proposed—are they practical and accessible to everyone? Also, how can communities be better educated to break the stigma around these diseases? It’s great that treatment is available, but without timely intervention, the consequences are severe. What steps are being taken to ensure early detection and treatment?
Wir haben libersave in unser regionales Gutscheinsystem eingebunden. Es ist toll, wie einfach man verschiedene Anbieter auf einer Plattform bündeln kann.