Uganda National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme

Uganda's National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme, NTLP, traces its origins to tuberculosis control efforts beginning in 1965, with the country's separate tuberculosis and leprosy activities combined in 1990 to form the unified programme, which published its first manual for district TB and leprosy supervisors in June 1992. Operating as a branch of the National Disease Control department within the Ministry of Health, NTLP follows internationally accepted strategies for TB control while maintaining separate health registers and reporting for tuberculosis and leprosy. The programme reached leprosy's elimination threshold in 2004, yet tuberculosis remains a substantial burden: Uganda is counted among the thirty countries the World Health Organization designates as high TB burden globally, with an estimated 94,000 people falling ill with tuberculosis in the country each year, and NTLP continues to develop successive strategic plans, with technical and financial support from the World Health Organization and international partners, to address that ongoing caseload.