By: Aphelele Buqwana and Palesa Chidi For many South Africans, the cost of basic healthcare has become its own kind of emergency. That is the reality that shaped the focus of Universal Health Coverage Day, marked on December 12. UHC Day is a global mark to reaffirm the commitment to ensuring that everyone can access quality healthcare without financial hardship. In the commemorations in South Africa that took place in Menlyn, Pretoria, the conversation shifted from abstract policy to everyday financial pressure felt in the clinics, hospitals and overall households. The National Department of Health has used this day to […]
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TB advocates, researchers and champions have been charged with the task of centering communities in their individual responses to South Africa’s ongoing TB crisis. This focus on community-centred efforts set the tone for the TB Accountability Consortium’s third annual convening, which brought together activists, TB champions, government representatives, partners and health experts to reflect on the country’s progress in the fight against TB. This year’s event, held between 27–28 November under the theme “Reigniting the Response: Reclaiming TB in the Global Health Storm,” provided a platform to discuss challenges, share lessons and look at strategies to strengthen TB prevention, testing, […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana The TB Accountability Consortium (TBAC) once again hosted its yearly national convening. This year, under the theme “Reigniting the Response: Reclaiming TB in the Global Health Storm,” the convening brought together activists, government representatives, partners and health experts to reflect on the year that was, unpack the challenges shaping the country’s TB response and recognise the resilience and leadership that continue to drive the work forward in the TB community. See some moments from the convening in the pictures below.
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By: Aphelele Buqwana South Africa’s broader economic pressures are increasingly affecting the country’s TB response, with rising costs making it harder for clinics to maintain essential basic services. Although the health budget increases each year, rising costs for medicines, laboratory services and salaries are outpacing those increases. As a result, provinces have less to spend, leaving clinics with fewer resources for TB testing, treatment and community outreach services. This is according to Rashaad Amra, a researcher of the Public Economy Project at the Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, during the two-day SANAC Civil Society Forum (SANAC CSF) engagement hosted by the TB Accountability Consortium (TBAC). The engagement, which looked at the programmatic and financial outlook […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana Men in South Africa remain disproportionately burdened by tuberculosis (TB), with studies showing that they are 70% more likely to develop TB and die from it compared to women. This alarming reality took center stage of the conversation at the Western Cape TB Summit, where community members and health experts raised concerns that men are still not being adequately reached, informed or supported in the province’s fight against TB. According to the newly launched End TB Campaign public facing dashboard by the National Department of Health, more than 4 000 men aged between 35–44 in the Western […]
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By: Aphelele Buqwana The country has taken a major step forward in the fight to end tuberculosis (TB) with the launch of the End TB Campaign public-facing dashboard, a digital platform that tracks TB testing data in near real-time across the country. The dashboard is a collaborative effort by the National Department of Health (NDoH), in partnership with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) as part of the End TB Campaign. It provides transparent and accessible data to the public. The platform allows the public to view progress toward South Africa’s ambitious […]
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