Durban -
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Tuesday urged MPs to sign their names to the Global Tuberculosis Caucus of Parliamentarians’ Barcelona Declaration, an international initiative to step up the fight against TB.
Already signed by 610 parliamentarians from 97 countries, the declaration calls for increased action to ensure every patient, regardless of where they are and ability to pay, receives quick, accurate diagnosis and quality medical treatment.
As Motsoaledi opened Tuesday’s parliamentary discussion, six of the 16 newly appointed TB ambassadors listened in the public gallery. Among them was Phumeza Tisile, a young woman from Khayelitsha, Cape Town, who fought TB and drug-resistant TB over two years.
It took 20 000 tablets and the drug regimen side effects meant she lost her hearing, said the minister, adding her hearing was restored through cochlear implants two weeks ago.
Other TB ambassadors in the House included musician Thembi Seete, and former TB patients media personality Gerry Elsdon, medical doctor Dalene von Delft and King Goodwill Zwelithini’s son, Prince Nhlanganiso Zulu.
Motsoaledi urged all MPs to be tested for TB, and for parliamentarians to be central in fighting TB. After all, the country was the only one with two Nobel laureates who were TB patients – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former president Nelson Mandela.
Worldwide 9.6 million people are infected with TB, and 1.5 million people died of the disease in 2014. The World Health Organisation (WHO) goal was to reduce the incidence of TB to 10 per 100 000 population, down from the current 250 per 100 000 population by 2035.
However, at the current rate of action, this goal would only be reached in 2180.
In South Africa miners, particularly those working in gold mines, people living in peri-mining communities and inmates and those working in prisons were most vulnerable, alongside pregnant women, informal settlement residents and health workers. People living with HIV and diabetes patients are also at high risk of co-infection.
Motsoaledi identified as top TB hotspots the following districts: Lejweleputswa in the Free State, Dr KK Kaunda and Bojanala in the North West, Waterberg and Sekhukhune in Limpopo, and Gauteng’s West Rand. All were linked to mining, the minister added.
Motsoaledi’s appeal found support across the party political divide: DA MP Wilmot James said the 102-strong party caucus had already signed the petition, and IFP MP and secretary-general Sibongile Nkomo pledged party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and all MPs’ signatures.
However, both opposition MPs also cautioned the minister that more needed to be done at home to redress malnutrition and poverty, while the EFF slated treatment at public facilities, saying no-one went to the TB clinic at Bushbuckridge, which is described as “a hell hole”.
Daily News
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