Hundreds of people marched to the Department of Health in Pretoria last week, urging the government to escalate measures to tackle the problem of TB, which, although preventable and treatable, killed more than 50 000 South Africans in 2022.
Led by organisations including the TB Accountability Consortium and the Treatment Action Campaign, the protesters called for it to be recognised as a national health crisis, writes Masego Mafata in GroundUp.
Anele Yawa, TAC secretary general, said the government needed to roll out its TB Recovery Plan for all districts.
The plan was implemented in 12 districts with the highest prevalence of HIV and TB between April 2022 and March 2023 – an emergency intervention to tackle disruptions to treatment and prevention during the pandemic.
A lack of awareness about TB and how to treat it means many people are defaulting on their medication, said Yawa.
Challenges include a lack of screening at clinics and hospitals upon arrival, meaning people risk infection while waiting in queues, while patent laws were making it difficult to roll out “more effective, affordable” and thus shorter, treatment.
Sihle Mahonga Ndawonde, TB Accountability Consortium project officer, said because of cost-cutting it was not clear how much money would be allocated to TB services, and that budget cuts cost lives.
A memorandum read out by TAC chairperson Sibongile Tshabalala called on government to “ringfence” funding allocations for TB services and the Recovery Plan.
It called on the Deputy President of South Africa, as chair of the National Aids Council (SANAC), to ensure the commitments made in the National Strategic Plan for HIV/TB & STIs 2023–2028 are realised.
The memorandum was received by Ramphelane Morewane, acting deputy director general at the department, who promised a written response within seven to 14 days.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA’s new DR-TB recovery plan will save countless lives
TB fight set back more than a decade because of Covid
Treatment gaps and poor governance hold back progress in reducing TB