South Africa strengthens TB response with new End TB public facing dashboard

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 dashboard comes after concerned effort by TBAC partners supported the SANAC Civil Society Forum who called for a public-facing TB dashboard through an an open letter to the Ministry of Health. The idea behind the demand was that the national public-facing TB dashboard should publish the number of people tested for TB and the proportion testing positive per sub-group, specifically for TB contacts, with data on the number started on TB treatment and TB Preventive Therapy (TPT) compared to TB targets as per the NSP monthly.

The platform allows the public to view progress toward South Africa’s ambitious goal of testing 5 million people for TB, broken down by all nine provinces, districts, age and gender. This level of detail gives policymakers, health workers, civil society and communities valuable insight into how the country’s TB response is performing and where more effort is needed.

Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has described the dashboard as a tool that fundamentally shifts how data is shared and used in South Africa’s TB response. He says it marks a significant step towards greater access to real-time, high-quality TB data, which is the key for TB control, prevention and resource allocation.

“The dashboard is a vital window through which we can support and track the progress of the End TB Campaign. Typically, crucial public health data is sealed and slow to report. This dashboard fundamentally changes that and is designed to be a transparent window into our progress, providing our key stakeholders with near real-time data. By making this data openly and entirely accessible, we empower everyone to play a meaningful role in ending TB.”

The End TB public facing dashboard is available on the NICD website here: https://t.co/Iyvy8wtVL8