The Ministry of Health has called for domestic funding for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) as prevention and treatment programs that are entirely being funded by donors are nearly ending.
Speaking at a meeting held on Wednesday to mark the World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, which is marked globally in January, Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said NTDs including bilharzia, buruli ulcers, brucellosis, trachoma, river blindness, worms, elephantiasis, kala azar, jiggers, snakebite envenoming, rabies and leprosy among others have no budget line in the ministry yet they are still rampant in rural areas.
Aceng was speaking just after revelations that there is no guarantee that donors will continue providing funding for NTDs after 2030.
Sharon Backers, the Chief of Party at Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, one of the biggest funders of control and prevention programs including providing treatments for NTDs in Uganda told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting that their current funding expires in 2026.
Ministry of Health officials are not yet certain of how much they will need to treat and eliminate these diseases but they say three diseases, trachoma, river blindness, and elephantiasis are about to be eliminated as they are still endemic in only a few districts.
Dr. Alfred Mubangizi, the Ag. Assistant Commissioner Vector Borne and NTDs in the ministry explain that they have withdrawn treatment of these.
However, while experts are battling with securing funding for NTDs, Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine says they also have a challenge of awareness where when the rural communities get infected with some of the NTDs, they run to traditional healers as they associate them with witchcraft.
She cites buruli ulcers, which can be treated by commonly available antibiotics but people don’t seek proper care for them. When it comes to podoconiosis, a form of elephantiasis common among subsistence farmers, she says the solution is as simple as avoiding digging bare feet as the soil in some areas of Uganda has a chemical that predisposes people to the disease.
The Ministry of Health also launched Uganda Neglected Tropical Diseases Master Plan 2023 to 2027 spelling out what they need to do to eliminate these diseases which can cause permanent disability to sufferers even after treatment is given.
The master plan is said to have been developed after a situation analysis of the ongoing program and identified key gaps which need to be filled if the diseases are to be eliminated. Meanwhile, these diseases are still affecting millions of people in different parts of country.
For instance, elephantiasis was estimated to affect 16.4 million people in 66 districts as of 2017.Bilharzia is endemic to 96 districts whereas worms are endemic in all 146 districts.
The country has eliminated sleeping sickness and guinea worm of all NTDs. Currently, the country has twenty NTDs circulating.