South Africa is not making good progress in controlling tuberculosis (TB), the Deputy Minister Dr Molefi Sefularo told an international meeting of TB and HIV researchers and clinicians in Cape Town this morning.
“We should accept that we are not making good progress. We run the risk of not being able to meet our millennium development goals (MDGS). We need to redouble our efforts and improve our outcomes,” he said.
Dr Sefularo attended the sixth annual investigators meeting in Cape Town to outline South Africa's progress in TB control. The meeting was attended by researchers from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya Brazil, United States, Britain and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representatives.
The Deputy Minister stated that a significant number of South Africans continued to perish from TB. Just a few months ago Statistics South Africa released a report indicating that for every 100 people who died in 2006, 13 of them died from TB, making TB the number one cause of death in South Africa.
The WHO estimates that almost one percent (461 000) of South Africans develop TB annually. In July 2008, South Africa had 388 782 of all types of TB cases in its notification system of which, 336 245 were pulmonary TB. South Africa’s TB cure rate is currently at 65 percent. The WHO recommends a cure rate of 85 percent for South Africa to disrupt its high levels of infection.
“This has left us anxious and concerned. We are well aware that we have to more than double our efforts in order to scale our response so that it is commensurate with the challenge at hand,” he said.
The deputy minister pointed out that real success depended on strong partnerships between the department and other government departments, non-governmental organisations and research institutions.
In conclusion Dr Sefularo announced that the department was in the process of reviewing the country's TB programme and hoped that a plan would be presented to a consultative meeting by April 2010.
Enquiries:
Charity Bhengu
Cell: 083 679 7424
E-mail: bhengu@health.gov.za
Issued by Department of Health
12 October 2009
Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za/)
