IN OTHER NEWS
BY CHARNDRÉ EMMA KIPPIE
TB: A neglected disease? With too many cases going undiagnosed, emphasis must be put on curbing the rate of TB infections in South Africa
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s the country champions through the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, we commemorate TB Awareness month, with World Tuberculosis (TB) Day taking place on March 24, to raise public awareness surrounding the detrimental effects of the disease on all pillars of our nation. At present, TB still ranks as one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide.
“What is encouraging is that we have established a solid foundation for resilient emergency response systems As per the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report, released in October 2020, the African continent makes up an estimated 25% of the world’s TB burden, and of these global cases 3.6% are attributed to South Africa. Further research shows that an estimated 360
000 people in the country had contracted TB in the year of 2019. And numbers have been climbing throughout the Covid-19 pandemic due to lowered detection and diagnosis rates. Working towards solutions Last month, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize made a public announcement regarding measures being implemented to assist in the fight against the consequences of COVID19’s disruption to the country’s healthcare system, with specific reference made to the detection, treatment and prevention (where possible) TB in South Africa. Recommendations provided by the latest Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey indicated that much more needs to be done in order to increase access to screening and testing services through outreach programmes. “In addition, our rates of drug resistant TB, though declining, continue to pose a public health
52 | Public Sector Leaders • March 2021
risk. The continued prevalence of TB has been mainly driven by the concurrent HIV epidemic, however, much has been gained in reducing the burden due to our high coverage with antiretroviral treatment”, said Mkhize. “Access to health services is a constitutional right. As government, our commitment is to realize a long and healthy life for all our citizens. This survey was undertaken to ensure that our services are responsive to the lived experience of our communities. There are lessons on community engagement and multi-sectoral partnerships that we can learn from provincial experiences, which we can take to scale.” TB Survey Results The report, released by the Human Sciences Research Council, indicated that there are many individuals with “undetected TB” in our
