The Union offices in Zimbabwe and Uganda have begun work on integrated tuberculosis and diabetes mellitus (TB-DM) care in the two countries through a two-year grant from the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF).
High-level stakeholders from both countries met last month in Zimbabwe to strengthen collaboration and develop an operational work plan for implementing the project, which will consist of screening tuberculosis patients for diabetes in Uganda and bi-directional screening of TB and diabetes in patients from both groups in Zimbabwe.
The project will be piloted in the capital cities of Harare, Zimbabwe and Kampala, Uganda with the hope to expand its reach following positive results. The Union will serve as the secretariat for a technical working group that was established to coordinate implementation of the project.
Representatives from The Union’s offices in Zimbabwe and Uganda, as well as the national tuberculosis programmes from both countries, the Uganda Diabetes Association, the Kampala Capital City Authority and the City Health Department from Harare attended the meeting.