The Deputy President Paul Mashatile said measures have been put in place to fast-track the implementation of the tuberculosis (TB) recovery plan in order to eradicate the disease by 2030.
Mashatile was speaking at the World TB Day commemoration, which was held in Tlhabane Stadium, in Rustenburg, North West, on Friday. The Deputy President said the treatment of the disease was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the high number of unregulated settlements in the province are the cause for exposure to diseases such as TB.
“We have already started finding undiagnosed people with TB through interventions that scale up community screening, introducing targeted universal TB testing and the use of other technologies.
“As all of us are aware, tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of ill health and death in South Africa.
”It concerns that the last South African TB Prevalence Survey positioned our country as one of the 30 high TB burden countries accounting for 87% of the burden. It is one of 10 countries with a triple burden of TB, TB/HIV and MDR-TB.
“We shall accelerate interventions to eliminate TB by fast-tracking the implementation of the TB Recovery Plan launched in 2022.” said Mashatile.
He said the government is determined to build a country free from preventable and curable diseases such as TB.
Mashatile has also met with the residents of Yizo Yizo in Tlhabane Township, before the commencement of the World TB Day event, to listen to their grievances.
The residents have taken advantage of the hosting of the event in their area, to raise issues of service delivery, and presented their complaints to the Deputy President Paul Mashatile.
Mashatile assured them that their concerns will be addressed.
