SA leads global effort to eliminate TB in 12 years

South Africa is leading an international initiative to completely eliminate TB by 2030.

This effort involves a concerted campaign targeting people who had not been diagnosed, those who stopped treatment and those left out of the health system.

This was announced by deputy president David Mabuza, who said the project was to be run in conjunction with the United Nations as an international campaign to eliminate the scourge, which Mabuza said kills more people than HIV-Aids.

He was speaking in Durban in a gathering also attended by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini and a large number of traditional leaders to commemorate World TB Day.

The deputy president said Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and other ministers of health around the world have decided that TB must be eliminated by 2030. Motsoaledi, who is also the chairperson of the Stop TB Partnership Board, had in 2016 made a call at the United Nations General Assembly to host a high level meeting on TB.

“This is a call to heads of state and governments to discuss how the world will eliminate TB. And we are happy to announce that this meeting will take place in September in New York. To prepare for this meeting, we wish to announce that South Africa will launch a national campaign to test and treat at least an additional 80 000 people for TB between April this year and March next year,” Mabuza said.

He said the campaign was targeting people who are currently either not diagnosed, or have stopped TB treatment before they were cured. This would also include citizens who were left out of the country’s health system due to not being reported and, therefore, not diagnosed.

“We seek to find and treat at least 40 000 before we go to the high level meeting in New York in September. We … call on all leaders, especially all South African traditional leaders, to help us to end TB. We can only do this by talking about TB, noticing its symptoms, going to the clinic when sick and completing treatment,” he said.

“TB could be eliminated if action is taken to stop its spread. Leaders have a very important role to play in communities. We call on every leader in every corner of our country to help us.”

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