Johannesburg - A disease that can be cured is becoming one that maybe can’t.
This is according to Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia, director of the Higher Education HIV/Aids Programme, an organisation that implements HIV counselling and testing campaigns, who said on Monday tuberculosis was the biggest threat to the nation.
Last week, Statistics South Africa released its “Mortality and Cause of Death in South Africa” report, which stated that one in 10 deaths in 2011 were as a result of TB, making it the country’s biggest natural killer, with a total of 54 112 people dying of TB.
According to the Gauteng Department of Health, the number of TB cases in the province has increased from 44 000 in 2005 to 56 000 in 2012. However, the cure rate has increased from 62.5 percent in 2005 to 83 percent last year.
“If TB is not looked after now, it will become as big a problem as HIV in the country. It kills 70 percent of Aids patients,” Ahluwalia said.
According to the World Health Organisation’s report, titled “Reach the 3 million”, released in line with World TB Day yesterday, more than 3 million people are missing out on quality care around the world.
This signifies the gap between the estimated number of people who become ill with TB in one year and the number notified of national TB programmes. They therefore do not get the treatment and care they need, and either die, get better or infect others.
According to the report, a person with TB infects about 10 people in a year. Without treatment, half the people with TB die.
The report states: “Children account for an estimated half a million (globally) new TB cases annually and 74 000 deaths… In 2012, only around 300 000 cases were notified to national TB programmes. TB in children is often missed or overlooked due to non-specific symptoms and limitation of diagnostic tools.”
Nearly half of the 3 million missed TB cases are in Asia, the report says. Among the solutions advised by the report are expanding access to care in vulnerable communities, and expanding screening and testing. - The Star