Deputy President and chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) David Mabuza on Wednesday addressed a World TB Day commemoration, in Mbombela, in Mpumalanga.

Mabuza was joined by Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize, Mpumalanga Premier Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane and Civil Society Forum chairperson Steve Letsike.

The event formed part of global World TB Day awareness activities aimed at raising public awareness about tuberculosis (TB) and the efforts made to prevent and treat the disease.

Mabuza said the potential diversion of priority focus and financial resources away from TB programmes to fund responses to the Covid-19 pandemic posed serious risks to the consolidation of global efforts to end TB.

He added that deepening levels of poverty, malnutrition and unequal access to TB treatment and care may also undermine efforts to meet global targets to end TB.

“Today, we are reminded, as citizens of the world that we have to act with a sense of urgency in pursuit of TB targets advocated in the Sustainable Development Goals, the World Health Organisation (WHO) End TB Strategy, and the 2018 Political Declaration of the United Nations (UN) Meeting on TB,” Mabuza said.

He noted that progress made in the fight against TB was encouraging, however, achievements needed to be consolidated and built on to enhance equitable access to quality and timely diagnosis, prevention, treatment and care.

According to the WHO’s 2020 Global TB Report, the number of people treated for TB has grown since the 2018 UN high level meeting.

Over 14-million people were reached with TB care in 2018 and 2019. The number of people provided with TB preventive treatment has quadrupled since 2015, from 1-million in 2015 to over 4-million in 2019.

Meanwhile, SANAC has prioritised interventions focusing on mobilising targeted sectors of society in response to prevalence survey reports and trends, including interventions focused on men’s behavioural change.

According to the results of the latest TB prevalence survey report, prevalence is 1.6 times higher in men than women.

“We therefore call on all men across the country to be counted in the nation’s efforts to end TB. Unless men heed this call, the well-being of South Africans will forever lie in the balance. Men must be encouraged to test for TB so that they get treated early before they spread the disease within their families and the entire community,” Mabuza said.

SANCO is also pleased with progress made by the South African TB Caucus Secretariat, in their efforts to establish TB Caucuses across the country.

The TB Caucus is a non-partisan country structure that forms part of the Global TB Caucus, an international network made up of over 2 500 parliamentarians from over 150 countries who work collectively and individually, and engage with civil society and other stakeholders to end the TB epidemic.

“Our National Strategic Plan on HIV, TB and STIs that was launched in 2017 remains our guiding implementation blue-print that enables multi-stakeholder participation and collaboration in the fight against HIV, TB and STIs. In terms of this plan, we had targeted to diagnose at least 90% of all people infected with TB. We had also committed to treating 100 percent of those who have tested positive, and decrease TB deaths by at least 30%,” stated Mabuza.

SANAC, he said, is central to all national efforts to mobilise various sectors of society to curb the spread of TB and eliminate infections.

Through its ‘Cheka Impilo’ campaign SANCO is ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to regularly screen and test for TB at the nearest clinic and that they receive treatment when needed.