Speaking in Durban this morning as he was unveiling new tuberculosis (TB) testing equipment - GeneXpert - the Health Minister urged all South Africans to work with his department in ensuring that the country's TB burden is reduced.
"South Africa is still one of the countries in the world with the highest burden of TB. We know that the scourge of HIV and AIDS has also complicated our TB situation given the high co-infection rate between HIV and TB. I am quite happy therefore to unveil this new technology as this equipment will assist us in reducing the time we have to wait before our patients get their TB results including Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB," said the Minister.
Currently, patients have to wait for an average of four to six weeks for their results. The new technology reduces the waiting period to two hours. The new machine unveiled in Prince Mshiyeni Hospital (Durban) is only one of five machines in the whole world.
The department is developing a national roll-out plan that will see these machines deployed throughout the country. "We have chosen to start here in eThekwini because this district has the highest TB cases in the country. But we know, the problem is national and we therefore have to take a national approach in our response to this challenge," said the minister.
For more information please contact:
Fidel Hadebe
Tel: 012 395 8494
Cell: 079 517 3333
Source: Department of Health
