By: Aphelele Buqwana Since its launch last year, the National End TB Dashboard has given researchers, advocates, programme managers and communities a clearer view of how TB testing is being delivered across the country. By making routinely collected testing data publicly available, the dashboard has allowed for closer examination of testing patterns across provinces, districts, age groups and sex. But South Africa’s efforts to find people with TB earlier continue to face gaps in testing, with access and reach varying across population groups and districts, while 56 000 people die from TB each year. Having access to the data has created an opportunity to look beyond national testing figures […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana In the Eastern Cape, the fight against TB does not end when someone walks into a clinic. Finding people with the disease, getting them onto treatment and supporting them to complete it are all part of a longer care journey, with people at risk of being lost at each stage. For the province’s TB Caucus, understanding these gaps is becoming an important part of its role in overseeing the TB response. These issues were at the centre of a Basic TB Management Training Programme hosted by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, Eastern Cape Legislature and Eastern […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana Getting tested for TB often means producing a sputum sample as the first step. But this can be difficult for people who have no symptoms, cannot cough up sputum or cannot easily access their local clinic. In South Africa, these gaps in testing contribute to thousands of people with TB going undiagnosed. An estimated 65 000 people with TB were missed by the health system in 2024, meaning they may not have been diagnosed or received treatment. Researchers in the country are looking at whether a simple tongue swab could offer another way to screen for TB, […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana The fight against HIV and TB extends beyond clinics and treatment programmes. Strong political leadership, sustained funding and effective parliamentary oversight are also needed to ensure that health policies translate into services that reach the people who need them. These issues were central to discussions at the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where global health experts, policymakers, researchers, healthcare professionals and communities reflected on the future of the HIV response and its links to other health challenges. The Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s TB Caucus joined the conference from 26 to 31 July […]
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Ending TB in South Africa will require more than just a biomedical response. It will need a response that includes social development, recognising TB as more than a health issue, but as a socio-economic challenge shaped by poverty, unemployment, food insecurity and other factors that continue to influence people’s vulnerability to the disease and their ability to complete treatment. However, in Gauteng, efforts to engage a multisectoral response to the disease will need to be strengthened and further built up to improve TB outcomes and close the gaps that continue to fuel the epidemic. Recently, members of the Gauteng Provincial […]
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By: Russell Rensburg, Rural Health Advocacy Project South Africa’s battle to tackle one of the world’s oldest, curable and preventable diseases came into the spotlight again at the recent SA TB Conference. Over four days, scientists, researchers, advocates and government officials discussed some of the key challenges in our response to one of the leading causes of death in the country. These include the diagnostic gap, the persistent challenges of adherence, the impact of socioeconomic factors and the need for bolder action and political will. On the other hand, there is genuine reason for optimism. New diagnostic technologies are becoming available. […]
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