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Today, on the occasion of the world commemorating World TB Day for the year 2011, as Chair of the South African National Aids Council, I would like to share with South Africans bold and concrete steps we are employing to bolster our fight against TB. South Africa’s TB burden ranks third in the world - one in every 100 people in our country has TB.
We are taking this challenge very seriously and I wish to record that we have adopted two new strategies to address this challenge. Firstly the Minister of Health unveiled a new diagnostic technology to diagnose both drug resistant and drug susceptible TB this morning and I wish to congratulate the Department of Health for being one of the first in the world to roll out this new diagnostic machine.
This diagnostic tool is significantly more sensitive than the old technology called microscopy and is significantly faster. This means that patients can wait for their results and get treated immediately should they be diagnosed with TB. At present patients have to return weeks later for their results!
The Department has also started an initiative of visiting households of people known to have TB, starting in districts with high caseloads. Teams of health workers visit homes to screen other family members for TB and all members of the household who consent, for HIV. In addition, if there are children in the home, their immunisation status is assessed to ensure that children are fully immunised and pregnant women are asked if they are enrolled in antenatal care and are making regular clinic visits.
This comprehensive approach takes services into communities and into homes and focuses on prevention and health promotion, early detection of illness and early referral to health services. This is one example of taking services to our people!
We are confident that these initiatives will help us to reduce the burden of TB on our communities, families and individuals.
Let us work together to defeat TB, HIV, AIDS and all other communicable diseases that undermine the social and economic wellbeing of our communities.