'SA will end TB with or without US'

ENDING TB was within reach, says Deputy President and South African National AIDS Council (Sanac) chairperson Paul Mashatile, despite the US’s freeze of its President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which disrupted critical TB programmes, threatening progress in case detection, treatment access, and research efforts.

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About 270 000 people were in 2023 diagnosed with TB. Of those, 56 000 lives were lost, which translates to 153 people every day. An estimated 58 000 people with TB were not diagnosed in the same year, said Mashatile, during his keynote address commemorating World TB Day at the Ugu sports and leisure centre in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday.

Mashatile used the commemoration to launch the “END TB” campaign aimed at testing five million people by the end of March next year, and annually thereafter. It is hoped that this initiative will result in a 29% reduction in TB incidence and a 41% reduction in TB mortality by 2035.