Tackling TB in KwaZulu-Natal: TBAC moves ahead with partnership to improve TB outcomes
The TB Accountability Consortium will be joining hands with the provincial health department in KwaZulu-Natal to improve the TB response in the province.
The province remains one of South Africa’s TB hotspots in South Africa, where 54 000 people still die of TB each year despite it being a preventable and treatable disease.
In July, the TBAC outreach team met with the Provincial Department of Health to talk about some of the challenges that were being experienced.
At the top of the list was the absence of communication campaigns. According to Rosslyn Page, the TB control program’s Advocacy Communication and Social Mobilisation deputy director, there has not been a communication campaign in the province for several years.
In recent weeks, the province has rolled out a school based TB awareness programme called #WeBeatTB. As part of the programme, pupils get incentivised to watch their parents for TB symptoms.
The meeting was part of a provincial engagement in which the consortium also met with TB stakeholders in the province. This included SANAC CSF exco members, the AIDS Foundation of South Africa, the SANAC Provincial Council on AIDS and the Provincial TB manager seconded by THINK in the Office of The Premier.
All the stakeholders recognized how the TB advocacy agenda could be integrated into accountability structures, such as provincial and district health meetings, engagements with the TB implementing partners and with the work they are doing at the office of the Premier.
Patrick Mdletshe, the KZN CSF exco co-chair, noted that political changes had caused the provincial TB task team/ TB focal person to be non-functional. The PDOH acknowledged TBAC’s technical expertise in TB advocacy as beneficial for a coordinated plan, while the OTP recognized TBAC’s efforts to support the CSF but highlighted funding logistical support as a significant challenge.
The importance of fighting TB is often overwhelmed by being grouped with HIV and Malaria in health budgets and policy plans.
TBAC and the PDOH will now enter into a memorandum of understanding to allow TBAC to help monitor the delivery of TB services in the province by attending provincial meetings, participating in advocacy activities and requesting updates on provincial plans.