Using Solar Power to Boost TB Diagnosis in Uganda

Despite a power surplus in Uganda, the Lango Sub-region has frequent electricity outages that affect most of its districts. As a result, much of the laboratory equipment at health facilities is non-functional, leading to expensive repairs, high error rates during GeneXpert testing, long turnaround times for test results, and wastage of materials that need to be refrigerated.

Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services-North, Lango (RHITES-N, Lango), installed seven new solar panel systems (of 3.5 KWTs each) at seven of the 10 GeneXpert sites in the sub-region from 2019 to early 2020.

These systems have had a tremendous effect. For example, at Orum Health Center IV in Otuke District, which receives more than 200 sputum samples each month, the number of errors (samples without results) dropped from 38 in January 2020 to nine in September 2020. In addition to GeneXpert, machines for hematology and clinical chemistry are connected to the solar power system, easing baseline investigations of rifampicin-resistant TB patients in the region. The solar power panels also allow facilities to download and print viral load and early infant diagnosis results in a timely manner.