Leading Tuberculosis (TB) practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal have called for the strengthening of the local healthcare system to respond to the overwhelming number of TB cases.
As the globe marks World TB Day on Saturday, statistics indicate that South Africa has the world’s largest number of co-infected HIV-TB patients – that’s 260 000 people or 25% of the global co-infection number.
Doctor Kogie Naidoo who is the head of HIV and TB Treatment at the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in South Africa says, “Irrespective of race, sex, age, which province you lived in, TB was number one and it remained number 1 for all 3 years. So that’s a big deal. TB which is diagnosable, preventable and treatable remains the number one cause of deaths. With 52 health districts in the country, TB remains the leading cause of mortality in 29 of 52 districts.”
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