The North West Premier Lazarus Mokgosi said that significant strides have been made to curb the spread of Tuberculosis (TB) in the province.
Mokgosi was addressing the provincial World TB Day commemoration in Tshing Township in Ventersdorp in the JB Marks Local Municipality.
“Today we are gathered as a province united in our commitment to a course that affects millions across the world, the fight against TB.
This is a day which marks Dr. Robert Koch’s ground-breaking announcement of the discovery of the bacteria responsible for TB in 1882, however more than a century later TB remains a global healthcare concern.
Our country South Africa forms part of 30 countries in the world accounting to 87% of the global burden of this epidemic and it is counted amongst the 10 countries with the triple burden of TB, HIV co-infection and drug-resistant TB,” said Mokgosi.
He expressed concern that the Bojanala Platinum and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipalities are the two regions with the highest levels of infections in the province when compared to other districts.
“This is largely attributed to mining activities in these two regions, because it’s fuelled by the pre-disposure to silicosis as well as spatial planning challenges due to the mushrooming of informal settlements.
Our decision to host this event in this district is primarily informed by the aforementioned factors but equally galvanised support from business and civil society organisations to respond to this health scare.
This year’s commemoration is centred on community driven efforts to find missing TB cases, educate communities, strengthen TB prevention and treatment programmes,” explained the Premier.
While TB remains to be one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases worldwide it is both preventable and curable.
The Premier said that despite this setback, his government has expanded TB screening services, increased access to treatment and integrated TB care into our broader healthcare system.
“In the third quarter of the financial year under review, our province reported 70% of people in contact with TB, and who have started TB preventive therapy.
Over 26 000 TB tests were conducted in the province with over 2 700 cases diagnosed in the same period.
This culminated in the drug sensitive TB treatment success rate of 82.2% as well as drug resistant TB treatment success rate of 85% therefore we are doing very well amongst the provinces in the country,” emphasized Mokgosi.
The disease claimed more than 56 000 lives in the country in 2023, despite being a preventable and treatable disease.
It has resulted in more deaths than all other infectious diseases combined.
