Rising cases of tuberculosis (TB) in fishing communities around Kasenyi Landing Site are causing fear among health providers.

During World AIDS Day celebrations for the fishermen at Kasenyi landing site in Wakiso district, TASO (The AIDS Support Organisation) Peer Community Co-ordinator for Entebbe George Kisitu, said there are increasing cases of TB among people living with HIV and AIDS, which was not the case before.

“We have HIV/AIDS clients whom we have been treating but on out reaches, we screen people from the communities but in the last six months I tested people in the community and found 26 people living with HIV, who also have TB in them,” Kisitu said.

Residents waiting patiently at Kasenyi Landing Site to be attended to. This was during the World AIDS Day on Friday, December 01.

The camp, which brought together hundreds of people, involved free HIV testing and counselling, screening of TB and cervical cancer, among others.

Prevalence of TB

In Uganda, 91,000 people get sick of TB of which 32% of them are HIV-positive.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) 2021 report indicates that 10.6 million people had TB: 56.5% were men and 32.5% were women.

FMP programme co-ordinator Polyne Nabwire said awareness sessions, creatively engaging both the audience on condom use, PEP and PrEP use as well as other rights-based Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) are some of the services that they offer including family planning.

Nabwire said they are creating awareness and engaging young people and FSWs living in Kasenyi, Kigungu and Nakiwogo fishing landing sites in Entebbe Wakiso district on their plight.

According to her, most lakeshores and fishing landing sites are hard-to-reach and have limited access to healthcare services.

“There are also no civil society organisations and service providers prioritising service delivery in fishing communities since the fishermen keep moving from on landing site to Islands,” Nabwire said.