Health Minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng has said the Health Ministry will not sit by and watch its partners’ and Government’s resources go to waste.

The minister said this at the handover ceremony of 50 motorcycles to districts and the commissioning of the first mobile TB clinics in Uganda that were procured with funding Global Fund. The minister also commissioned 5 digital mobile X-ray machines from USAID.

Dr Aceng urged the district leadership to monitor and ensure proper utilization of the X-ray services at the helath facilities and the acquired motorcycles are used for TB and leprosy coordination and supervision.

She also urged implementing partners to support the utilization by facilitating health facility teams to conduct TB screening at the facility and through outreach in the communities to reach all people at increased risk.

The Health Minister thanked the Global Fund and the US government for their continued support towards strengthening Uganda’s health sector.

Speaking at the same event, the Director General of Health Services, Dr Henry Mwebesa said the mobile TB clinics offer an opportunity to reach the most vulnerable in the community but will also go a long way in ensuring that screening is carried out at the various MDAs as part of the multi-sectoral collaboration efforts, for instance, in the schools, prisons and parks.

“Going out in the community to screen for tuberculosis, diagnose the disease and initiate treatment on the same day using these tools is a turning point in the control of tuberculosis in this country,” said Dr Mwebesa  

The Ministry of Health through the national Tuberculosis and leprosy control, strategic plan (2020/21-2024/25) set the over 90, 90, 90% targets for prevention, diagnosis and treatment which may not be realized without deployment and scale up of such new tools as X-ray services at health facilities and communities to improve TB screening and detection.