March 18
South Africa: Someone Close to Me Has Been Diagnosed With TB - What Should I Do?
Tuberculosis can infect anyone. It is caused by bacteria and spreads through air and is very common in South Africa. Dr Janet Giddy shares how she deals with Mrs Worried - an… Read more »
December 06, 2023
South Africa: Analysis - SA Close to Meeting TB Research Funding Targets, but Most Countries Falling Short
South Africa is one of only six countries to ever meet its "fair share target" for funding tuberculosis (TB) research, according to a Treatment Action Group (TAG) report published… Read more »
December 11, 2023
South Africa: Health in 2023 - a Deceptively Busy Year in Fewer Than 1 000 Words
2023 was a busy year for healthcare in South Africa. There were several policy developments, landmark court cases, important pieces of legislation, and some changes in leadership.… Read more »
November 27, 2023
South Africa: Antibiotic Slashes Risk of Drug-Resistant TB in Kids, Finds Major SA Study
For decades the standard way to prevent people who were exposed to tuberculosis (TB) from falling ill with the disease was to offer them a medicine called isoniazid, taken daily… Read more »
November 22, 2023
South Africa: 'Someone Had to Do It', Says TB Activist On Time 100 List
Phumeza Tisile from Khayelitsha was 19 years old when she contracted multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). She battled the disease for nearly four years, then lost her hearing… Read more »
November 20, 2023
South Africa: Country's Remarkable TB Clinical Trial Capacity
Several of the world's most important tuberculosis (TB) clinical trials of the last two decades were done in part or entirely in South Africa. These include several trials that… Read more »
November 10, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - What New WHO TB Numbers Mean for SA
An estimated 54 200 people in South Africa died of tuberculosis (TB) in 2022 and around 280 000 fell ill with the disease, according to new World Health Organization (WHO) figures.… Read more »
November 07, 2023
South Africa: 'The Situation Is Not Going Away,' Says Inspiring TB Doctor
Dr Juli Switala from Pretoria has treated children in Nigeria, helped fatally ill patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and has delivered babies at Afghanistan's… Read more »
October 06, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Can Co2 Monitors Help Protect Healthcare Workers From TB?
One of the ways that someone can become infected with tuberculosis (TB) is through airborne transmission - breathing in TB molecules that are exhaled into the air by a person with… Read more »
October 04, 2023
South Africa: Hospital Histories - Sizwe, Where Lives Have Been Saved Since Joburg's Earliest Days
How the story of a frustrated TB patient raging at doctors and nurses with a knopkierrie in hand transformed into a story with a happy ending, sums up a TB hospital where… Read more »
September 28, 2023
South Africa: How Does SA Measure Up Against New TB Recommendations?
A new report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis (TB) titled 'Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis' makes several recommendations for how governments should go… Read more »
September 22, 2023
South Africa: Better Data and Transparency Needed If We Are to Live Up to TB Rhetoric At UN
There is a renewed global commitment to tackle tuberculosis (TB) from global leaders who are meeting in New York today for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. The meeting… Read more »
September 20, 2023
South Africa: 'The Only Good TB Bacillus Is a Dead One', Says UCT's Prof Valerie Mizrahi
World-leading tuberculosis researcher Professor Valerie Mizrahi was 35 when her mother Etty started losing weight and coughing furiously. After healthcare professionals in… Read more »
September 13, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Why an Eastern Cape TB Hospital Closed and What Comes Next
In 2021, Orsmond TB Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay closed its doors as a result of its dwindling patient numbers. The Eastern Cape Department of Health decided to repurpose it as a… Read more »
September 07, 2023
South Africa: A UN Meeting On TB Is At Best a Means to More Important Ends
In 2018 the first findings from a landmark tuberculosis (TB) vaccine trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The experimental vaccine, called M72, was found to… Read more »
August 16, 2023
South Africa: TB Contact Tracing Helps Save Lives - This Is How It Works in SA
Globally an estimated 850 000 lives could be saved by 2035 if short-course tuberculosis (TB) preventive therapy is provided to people living with HIV and contacts of individuals… Read more »
July 19, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - How Big a Problem Is TB in SA's Schools?
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 304 000 people in South Africa fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021. Since only a fraction of people who breathe in TB… Read more »
June 29, 2023
South Africa: Funding Secured for Massive TB Vaccine Trial
A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies.… Read more »
June 20, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Why Is the Northern Cape Missing Its TB Targets?
Albert Molutsi is a tuberculosis (TB) survivor who lives in Gasehunelo in the predominantly rural JT Gaetsewe District in the Northern Cape. He tells Spotlight he depends on a… Read more »
June 13, 2023
South Africa: Community-Based Testing Boosts Diagnosis of Infectious TB, Study Finds
Every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), tens of thousands of people who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa are not diagnosed. Globally, of the… Read more »
June 02, 2023
South Africa: The Complex Interplay Between TB and Liver Problems
People in South Africa who fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) often also have other health issues. HIV, which drives much of the TB epidemic in South Africa, is the most obvious… Read more »
April 20, 2023
South Africa: The Promise of a Financial Boost for TB Programmes - Where to From Here?
South Africa's new roadmap to tackle HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections - the National Strategic Plan - lays out an ambitious list of priority actions that need to be… Read more »
March 31, 2023
Africa: Shorter Treatment Regimens for TB Offer Hope, but Await Implementation
A global infectious disease killer existed long before COVID-19 and continues to wreak havoc on the lives of millions of people worldwide. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by… Read more »
March 28, 2023
South Africa: In-Depth - Mostly Positive Responses to SA's New HIV, TB and STI Plan
South Africa's National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (2023 - 2028) was launched on Friday at Tlhabane Stadium in Rustenburg, North West as the world commemorated World TB… Read more »
March 27, 2023
South Africa: We Need More Dedicated Investment to Address TB in Children
The theme of last year's World Tuberculosis (TB) Day was 'Invest to end TB' - an apt theme acknowledging the critical shortfall in funding for TB if we are to meet the 2035 goal of… Read more »