By KT Reporter
Researchers at Makerere University Lung Institute have embarked on a new study in which they are targeting health facilities that treat children below ten years seeking treatment for Tuberculosis (TB).
According to Dr Bruce Kirenga, the Executive Director of the Institute, they are targeting to involve sixty health facilities in the study as they evaluate a strategy that aims to improve early diagnosis of TB in children and reduction of mortality once they are enrolled on treatment.
Kirenga says that, where it has been tried, this strategy called Treatment Decision Algorithms (TDAs) has been proven to work as the number of children enrolled on TB treatment increased.
The strategy was first recommended for use by the World Health Organization in 2022 however, experts say there haven’t been external clinical trials to provide evidence to validate it.
Now, apart from Uganda, the clinical trial funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is also happening in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aim, according to researchers, is not just to evaluate the effectiveness of this WHO recommended strategy but also to determine its acceptability for treatment of children under 10 years old who continue to be highly affected by challenges of early diagnosis and treatment retention leading to unnecessary death yet the disease is both preventable and treatable.
At the Ministry of Health, Dr Stavia Turyahabwe, the Assistant Commissioner at the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Division, says this study comes in handy as they are actively looking for solutions to cut down on unnecessary but persistent deaths due to TB, especially in children, where treatment remains complicated.
Figures by the Ministry of Health show sixty per cent of children with TB in Uganda remain undiagnosed, and Turyhabwe says the country has already adopted the guidance by the World Health Organization and that they are currently looking at how best it can be implemented by health facilities treating TB.
She further says that the country also recently adopted a diagnostic approach of using stool to test for TB in children-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
