Research reveals high TB prevalence with many asymptomatic

While health responses have been focused on Covid-19, research has shown high prevalence of tuberculosis infections continued to haunt the country demanding a better health response.
On Friday, the department of health released the first national tuberculosis prevalence survey which identified a high TB burden.

The prevalence of TB (all forms, all ages) in South Africa in 2018 was 737 per 100 000 population.

The infections were higher in males than in females and the high prevalence of TB among individuals aged 35-44 years and the elderly 65 years and older.

“A higher proportion of TB was detected among HIV-negative individuals, with most reporting no symptoms. HIV positive participants identified as TB cases had more symptoms and hence they are more likely to be detected and treated.

“In contrast those who are HIV negative are less likely to report symptoms and potentially contribute to ongoing transmission of TB,” said Dr Sizulu Moyo of the Human Sciences Research Council.

Moyo said in 2018, there were about 390 000 TB positive cases with only 235 652 detected and 154 348 missing cases.

The research also found that many with symptoms delayed in seeking health care.

READ MORE: Tshwane ramps up Covid fight as cases show decline

Moyo said this perception needed to be corrected as TB remained the number one infectious disease to cause mortality.

Many of those who were detected positive of TB, only showed signs of infections when conducting a chest X-ray test.
Welcoming the report, health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize said the burden was higher than the department had anticipated.

He said the department would have to shift resources, strengthen and equip health facilities to be able to respond to the TB burden.

“There are many people with undetected TB in the communities, the implications of this is the continued transmission. To break the cycle of transmission we need to extend services to communities through outreach programmes and sustain infection control practices from Covid-19,” he said.

Tshwane health MMC Sakkie du Plooy said while health continued to weather Covid-19 storm, the metro was not neglecting the fight against TB which could be deadly when left untreated.

He said TB was one of the leading causes of deaths in the region.

“When we started seeing the numbers of people taking HIV and TB treatment declining during hard lockdown last year, we were worried. We started encouraging our health workers and those delivering treatment to encourage taking of treatment.”

Du Plooy said it was dangerous for many defaulting on TB treatment. “While we were educating people on Covid-19 we never stopped with the HIV and TB treatment roll-out because we understood the dangers of defaulting can be deadly at times.”

He said the metro would continue strengthening its health responses to TB to curb the rate of TB related fatalities.

In June 2020, the department of health said about 1 090 patients had failed to collect their TB medication and 10 950 failed to collect their antiretroviral medicines during the lockdown.

By October 2020, HIV testing had fallen by nearly half and TB testing and primary health care access by carers and children fell by between 9-25%.

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