Hope Mafaranga

Heath workers team up to fight TB By Hope Mafaranga Every second someone in the world gets infected with the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. One third of the world’s population, around 2 billion people, already has this TB bacterium in their body. It is for this reason that health workers in western Uganda goes knocking on doors of congested slums once a week to convince suspected tuberculosis (TB) patients to visit referral hospitals and submit a sample of their sputum. The health workers have been doing this for the past three years in a bid to fight and prevent TB in the most congested slum areas of Kisenyi in Kabarole district, Biafra in Mbarara district and Nyendo Senyange in Masaka district. They set up tents as sputum collection centers to serve and counsel people from there. They work with local leaders in the slums to mobilize and sensitize community members the dangers of TB and urge them to diagnose for the disease. They also use local radio stations to