Durban — Deputy President Paul Mashatile has said that stigma and discrimination remained a barrier that limited access to tuberculosis (TB) screening, treatment and care – compromising the lives of people who were infected and affected by the disease. Mashatile said this on Friday when he led his first World TB Day at the Tlhabane Sportsground in Rustenburg, North West.
“We think it is unacceptable that in the year 2023 we are still talking about stigma,” he said.
Moreover, he said TB remained one of the leading causes of ill health and death in South Africa, exacerbated by patients who did not complete their treatment while others were either undiagnosed or were unreported even though they knew their status.
This year’s theme ‘Yes! You and I Can End TB!’ is aimed at encouraging individual action to strengthen the national strategy against this curable disease.
Mashatile said the government was determined to build a world free from the devastation of preventable and curable diseases such as TB. He said the government would continue to embark on catch-up programmes and shortened treatment. This was after the infectious disease took a backseat due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“However, regardless of the setback, we have made conscious efforts to rebuild and intensify TB interventions across the country,” he said.
Moreover, he launched the fifth National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB, and STIs for the period 2023 to 2028 as adopted by the Cabinet.
He described the plan as a blueprint and roadmap for a multi-sectoral, people-centred approach to eliminate HIV, TB, and STIs as public health threats by 2030.
He added that the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) was leading several activities as part of the NSP rollout, which included messaging about STI transmission, condom use, availability of family planning services and availability of ground-breaking HIV prevention tools.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the TB challenge and had a negative impact on national gains and TB services. Furthermore, they said in 2021, more than 304 000 people in South Africa contracted TB and 56 000 had died because of it. However, the country had seen a more than 50% drop in new infections and a nearly two-thirds drop in associated deaths since 2009.
Moreover, in a statement, the NICD said: “The number of TB tests administered nationally decreased by 23% between 2019 and 2020, from 2,076,726 to 1,605,529 tests. The number of patients with laboratory diagnoses declined by 25%, from 207,401 to 155,946. To reverse these losses, the National TB Recovery Plan was created to intensify and accelerate efforts to get back on track to meet the end TB targets.”
The NICD added that as part of their plan, in August last year the National Health Laboratory Service, with the support of the Centre for TB, they implemented the automated sending of SMS to people undergoing laboratory testing for presumptive TB. Furthermore, they said the service’s success relied heavily on capturing the client’s cellphone number.
“Continuous engagement with both the National Tuberculosis Programme and our laboratory stakeholders has resulted in a gradual increase in the success of this service, from an initial 27% SMS attempted to 42% of those receiving an Xpert test from inception to February 2023, with an average of 79% successfully delivered,” said the NICD .
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