Gulu district TB, and Leprosy focal point person has expressed fears looming multi- drug resistance in Tuberculosis (TB) patients

Mr John Opwonya said the drug resistance in Tuberculosis patients has been registered in five patients and one confirmed case.

“The drugs are non effective and our worries are that the other people can catch the disease and never cure,” Opwonya said.

He said the blood sample has been taken to the National TB Reference Laboratory in Wandegeya Kampala two weeks ago for test.

The patients were treated for eight months and another consecutively but they have failed to respond to the first Line treatment which involves a combination of five different drugs.

“If the result is positive she will face injection of 180 vials to cure; this is very expensive,” he added.

Opwonya said every four months over 500 new cases of TB are reported in the district health department because of awareness but poor preventive measures in the community.

Meanwhile the district secretary for health and education Mr Charles Okwakalwak said the problem of drug resistance is due to sale and use of counterfeit drugs and high treatment making patients to prefer buying own treatments.

“Am a victim of the circumstance, drugs of shs23, 000 is sold to me in a private hospital at shs100,000 and I preferred a drug shop,” he said.

The district AIDS task force resolved to implement awareness campaign to combat the worrying spread of AIDS in both rural and urban centers by the end of October.

Some of the measures outlined include promotion of behavior change and communication, prevention of mother to child transmission and collecting sex workers for training and care and support to Orphans and vulnerable children.

The district resolved to provide quality social support to infected and affected families up to 50 percent by 2012 and reduce the prevalence rate of AIDS from 13.1 to 6.2 percent by 2012.