Experts develop tools to mitigate TB

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Health experts have developed tools to help speed up and improve the treatment of Tuberculosis (TB).

Dr Achilles Katamba, a senior lecturer at Makerere University, School of Public Health, said the tools developed are intended for the Ministry of Health and other stakeholders to rethink ways of delivering services to the people, especially in TB care.

Talking about the efficiency of the tools, Dr Katamba said “Usually, people have been coming to health facilities to access services, but now with the modern digital era, community health workers will move in the communities to identify, test and enter the names of patients in the data system,” he said.

He made the revelation during a meeting on “Re-Imagining TB Care: transforming when, where, and how services are accessed and delivered in Uganda” at the Esella Country Hotel on Friday, May 16, 2025.

Little awareness of TB

Katumba reported that the study revealed a low level of awareness about tuberculosis (TB) among the community. It was found that many individuals who have TB do not seek care; in fact, 50% of those affected are unaware that they have the disease.

“We started by getting views of the people on how they want to be served in terms of health care services in particularly on TB services. After that, we used their views to identify solutions,” Katumba said.

One of the solutions was to use digital tools to make sure that these services are delivered near communities by testing them and entering their information into the system, and later linking them to care,” he said.

Katamba, however, said they are not creating new tools, adding that all these tools exist and some are already used by the health ministry.

Some of the tools include the Electronic Community Health System, which is already in the ministry's approach to be used by the Community Health Workers (CHWs) in screening communities.

There is also Lab Expert, a tool already embedded in all Lab Expert machines in the country. It’s a digital lab network with advanced features for sample tracking.

The project has also developed an electric case-based surveillance system, which is an individual-level TB module.

“We are working together with the health ministry with support from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to integrate these different tools,” Katumba said.

Ending TB, HIV and Malaria

Dr. Stavia Turyahabwe, the Commissioner of Communicable Disease Prevention and Control at the health ministry, said they are focusing on ending the high burden of diseases such as TB, HIV and Malaria by 2030.

“We are using digital tools and digitalising the entire sector to see that we reach out to everybody and how best we can avert this situation before it worsens. This can only be done through innovations and focus on the best to serve our people,” Turyahabwe said.

She said the ministry had started digitising services, starting with regional referral hospitals.