March 23, 2023
South Africa: Making Good On the Promise of SA's TB Recovery Plan
Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of death in South Africa. In 2021, TB accounted for 56 000 deaths and 304 000 people got sick with TB in the country. This is part of an… Read more »
South Africa: Yes! We Can End TB in South Africa
Tuberculosis (TB), an ancient but curable disease, kills more people worldwide than any other infectious disease. Despite decades of global efforts to fight TB, more than 1.6… Read more »
March 22, 2023
South Africa: Supply Issues Delaying Wider Rollout of Shorter TB Preventive Therapy
Though estimates vary substantially, it is thought that in the region of 300 000 people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa every year. Many more people, however, have… Read more »
March 20, 2023
South Africa: New Guidelines Are a Step Forward for SA's TB Response
In February 2021, findings from South Africa's first national tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey confirmed what many suspected - every year, tens of thousands of people sick with… Read more »
March 13, 2023
South Africa: Community Care Model Improves Uptake of TB Preventive Therapy, Study Finds
The uptake and continuation of tuberculosis (TB) preventive therapy were much higher when it was provided through a community-based model compared to the standard clinic-based… Read more »
February 27, 2023
South Africa: What Next After Shortened TB Treatment Fails in Key Trial?
The current treatment for drug-susceptible tuberculosis (TB) used in South Africa involves a combination of four antibiotics, last for six months, effectively cures TB, and is dirt… Read more »
January 25, 2023
South Africa: This Is Why Mpumalanga Is Repurposing Some TB Hospitals
The Mpumalanga Health Department plans to repurpose three of its five tuberculosis (TB) hospitals due to dwindling numbers of in-patients at these hospitals. Read more »
January 26, 2023
South Africa: As With Covid-19, the Effects of TB Can Linger Long After It Is Cured
According to the World Health Organization, of the roughly 10 million people who fall ill with TB annually, over 80% survive, in most cases due to a six-month treatment course.… Read more »
January 18, 2023
South Africa: Health in 2023 - 13 Things to Look Out For
Set against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 recovery, the National Health Insurance Bill winding its way through Parliament, healthcare worker shortages, and the ongoing… Read more »
December 15, 2022
South Africa: SA to Receive Donation of New Child-Friendly DR-TB Medicines
South Africa's National Department of Health is set to receive a donation of child-friendly formulations of several medicines used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). It… Read more »
December 06, 2022
South Africa: Experts Call for Better Screening and Treatment of TB During Pregnancy
Busisiwe Beko, from Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, was diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) while she was pregnant. She remembers it as a very difficult period in… Read more »
December 07, 2022
South Africa: Testing Stool Can Help Detect TB in Children
Most tuberculosis (TB) testing today relies on sputum samples coughed up from the lungs. This makes intuitive sense since pulmonary (or lung) TB is the most common form of TB and… Read more »
November 24, 2022
South Africa: New Resistance Tests Set to Improve TB Treatment
Some strains of the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium have mutated to become resistant to some of the drugs commonly used to treat TB. Accordingly, one of the first questions to ask when… Read more »
November 18, 2022
South Africa: Mental Health Screening for People With TB Will Change Lives and Boost SA's TB Response
After two years of COVID-19 and disruption of normal healthcare services such as those for tuberculosis (TB), welcome-back initiatives were started across provinces to get people… Read more »
November 15, 2022
Africa: TB Treatment Can Be Cut to Two Months for Some, Finds Landmark Study
Some cases of tuberculosis (TB) can be successfully treated in as little as two months - a third of the current standard of six months in South Africa and most other countries.… Read more »
October 28, 2022
South Africa: 56,000 TB Deaths in SA in 2021, Estimates WHO
In 2021 an estimated 304 000 people in South Africa fell ill with tuberculosis and 56 000 died from the disease, according to new World Health Organization (WHO) figures released… Read more »
October 21, 2022
South Africa: Digital X-Rays Boosting TB Diagnosis, Assessment Finds
TB diagnosis usually starts with asking someone whether they have any of the classic symptoms of TB (coughing, fever, loss of weight, and drenching night sweats in adults).… Read more »
October 12, 2022
South Africa: In-Depth - the Complex Relationship Between TB and Mental Health
Falling ill with tuberculosis (TB) and all the disruption and stress that goes along with it can take a toll on someone's mental health, and mental health problems can in turn make… Read more »
October 10, 2022
South Africa: Interview - Prof Wendy Stevens On Following the Science, Even If It Means Swimming Against the Stream
When Wendy Stevens' mother succumbed to breast cancer in 2020, she left a series of letters to her four children that she had penned during her illness. Read more »
October 03, 2022
South Africa: In-Depth - Use of Urine Test for TB Increasing
While tuberculosis (TB) is the top killer of people living with HIV, TB is also harder to diagnose in people living with HIV than in people who are not. What is more, TB is… Read more »
September 16, 2022
South Africa: TB Treatment to Be Shortened to 4 Months for Most Children
South Africa last published comprehensive guidelines for the management of childhood tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. Almost a decade later, there is a pressing need to update the… Read more »
September 15, 2022
South Africa: As Testing Volumes Improve, Government Outlines TB Recovery Plan
South Africa's tuberculosis (TB) testing numbers have recovered from dramatic COVID-19-related declines in 2020, delegates heard this week at the opening of the 7th South African… Read more »
August 17, 2022
South Africa: Francesca Conradie - From HIV to Groundbreaking TB Research
Francesca Conradie knew she wanted to be a doctor when she was eight years old. Well, that, or a truck driver. Read more »
July 21, 2022
South Africa: Experts Weigh in On the Potential of Ultrasound for Diagnosing TB in Kids
Tuberculosis (TB) is hard to diagnose in children, especially very young ones. This is because it is difficult for children to cough up the sputum required to perform the gold… Read more »
June 22, 2022
South Africa: Shorter, Simpler Dr-TB Regimen Expected Later This Year
Work is underway in South Africa to amend the country's national guidelines for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) to provide a shorter, six-month, all-oral regimen as a new… Read more »