Winning the fight against TB
In addition to being Human Rights Month, the South African Government has declared March as TB Awareness Month, in line with the global celebration of World TB Day on 24 March.
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to place a huge health burden on South Africa.The country's latest mortality statistics from Statistics South Africa show that the disease was the leading underlying cause of death in 2015, with the majority of these cases occurring in HIV-positive people.
But the statistics also indicate a steady year-on-year decline in both the number of deaths and the new reported cases of TB, which is reflective of the concerted efforts that government has made towards fighting the disease. This work started in 1996, when government established its ongoing partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO) to gauge the impact of TB and develop ways to counteract the disease.
Between 2013 and 2015, the number of TB deaths dropped by 21 percent, from 41 904 to
33 063. Meanwhile, the number of new cases was slashed from their peak of 832 per 100 000 people in 2009, to 520 per 100
000 people in 2015.
This is an indication of the success in treating people infected with TB, and in raising awareness.The success rate for treatment of infected patients is currently upwards of 77 percent, thanks to initiatives such as screening interventions, state-ofthe-art drug regimens endorsed by the WHO, and improved treatment of multidrug resistant TB.
The Department of Health also regularly updates its National TB Management Guidelines, which guides all healthcare professionals on the best practices associated with detecting and treating TB, and is one of the most comprehensive documents of its kind in the world.
The fight against TB has been bolstered even further by the launch of the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on HIV, TB and STIs 2017-2022. One of the intended outcomes of the plan is to reduce TB incidence by 30 percent by 2022.The NSP is broad and comprehensive, with goals including accelerated prevention, reducing morbidity and mortality, reaching all key and vulnerable populations, addressing social and structural drivers, and promoting leadership and shared responsibility.
The South African Government has committed R78.2 billion over the 2017/18 - 2019/20 financial years for HIV, TB and
STI programmes. However it is estimated that R207 billion will be needed over the full five years to fully implement the strategies laid out in the NSP, meaning that private sector partners must also step forward to advance the cause.