“For me I had tuberculosis (TB) and I was not even suspecting it. You know in this lifestyle of ours and also smoking. I would think that may be this cough is coming on and off. Sometimes there would be general body weakness, you are down, and you are coughing. Until I went for that diagnosis is when I was able to realise that it was TB. It is not simple for someone to stand up and say: “I THINK I MUST BE HAVING TB,” shared a TB Survivor.

That people in the northern region of Uganda get surprised when they find themselves infected with TB is interesting; considering, for example, that all the respondents in the CPAR investigation for northern region expressed familiarity with the disease.

Testimonies that were shared by respondents in a CPAR qualitative investigation into TB confirm that TB prevails in the greater northern region of Uganda; a region which includes: Karamoja, Lango, Acholi and West Nile sub-regions.

As one of the respondents eloquently shared:

“TB does not have the boundary. It is not a poor person only who is dying of TB, even rich ones, even educated ones, they are dying.”

Time for action is now!

The PDF (5 pages including cover and acknowledgement page) of the full briefing on the CPAR researching findings on the prevalence of TB in northern Uganda is available to download free through this link