The ban on release of Global Fund money to help in the fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) has led to a short supply of TB drugs at Uganda's major hospital, Mulago Hospital in Kampala, local press reported on Sunday.

The report said that some TB patients have had to buy their medicine while others have stopped taking the drugs altogether.

"For the past month, I haven't been able to get drugs," said Denis Otim, a patient, who spent 26,000 shillings (14 U.S. dollars) last month to buy the drugs at a pharmacy.

Housewife Sophia Nabukalu said she has spent over 50,000 shillings (27 dollars) on drugs. Her husband, a porter, makes around 2,000 shillings (1.1 dollars) a day.

"I came to Mulago to get medicine and they explained that even some people in the ward aren't getting the drugs," said Nabukalu, who is worried that her three children, who have been coughing but have not yet been tested may have also contracted the disease.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease that affects the respiratory system. According to the World Health Organization, TB affects nine million new people and kills approximately two million people every year. Patients require at least six months treatment before they get cured.

Being an infectious airborne disease, the drug shortage not only affects TB sufferers but the wider community, the report said.

"We can't tell yet what the impact of the shortage will be," Dr.Denis Rubahika of Mulago TB ward said, adding that "we won't see it for a few months, but transmission could be high."

Public health officials said patients who stop taking drugs for a month or more could become resistant to the commonly used drugs and would require more expensive drugs.

However, Stephen Ekazu, program administrator of the Ministry of Health's Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program, told the press that "it's something very temporary."

"Since lifting its ban, the Global Fund has promised to airlift a three-month supply of drugs for the country. The drugs will arrive by January 27," Ekazu added.

Source: Xinhua