While the almost 70% price reduction in important tuberculosis prevention drug Rifapentine for 100 countries with significant TB epidemics is a breakthrough, the high cost of newer drugs remains a barrier.
The latest Global Tuberculosis Report has been launched by the World Health Organization (WHO). Dr Paula I Fujiwara, Scientific Director of The Union responds.
"It is extremely concerning that the WHO's 2019 Global TB Report confirms that tuberculosis (TB) remains the single most lethal infectious disease globally, surpassing HIV/AIDS, killing some 1.6 million people annually, and that the end of TB will remain out of reach until national leaders step up," said Dr Fujiwara.
More people received life-saving treatment for tuberculosis (TB) in 2018 than ever before, largely due to improved detection and diagnosis. Globally, 7 million people were diagnosed and treated for TB - up from 6.4 million in 2017 – enabling the world to meet one of the milestones towards the United Nations political declaration targets on TB.
Last week the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the drug pretomanid for use in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid “for treating a limited and specific population of adult patients with extensively drug resistant, treatment-intolerant or nonresponsive multidrug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis (TB)”.
Despite the fact that often-deadly extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) is found in roughly 127 countries, up until now it has been treated with a ‘kitchen sink’ approach. Doctors, using their discretion, throw many often-toxic drugs into a lengthy treatment regimen – unsure if the combination will lead to a cure. XDR-TB is by definition resistant to many key tuberculosis medicines used today.
South Africa has one of the highest burdens of tuberculosis (TB) in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 322 000 people in South Africa had active TB disease in 2017, meaning they were presenting symptoms and could spread the TB bacteria. Approximately 60% of these people were also living with HIV. TB is the leading reported cause of death among people living with HIV and in South Africa overall (although models indicate that HIV still causes slightly more deaths).
01 Aug 2019
The Ministry for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities in the Presidency has dedicated this Women's Month to addressing economic empowerment, eradication of gender-based violence and elimination of pay gaps for equal work.
Under the theme “25 Years of Democracy: Growing South Africa Together for Women's Emancipation”, the ministry launched the campaign yesterday in Pretoria.
During the launch, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane set the tone with the hashtag #HearMeToo.
USAID TB South Africa Project, in partnership with the organisation Next2People, is implementing an intervention to increase capacities of general practitioners (GPs) in OR Tambo district, Eastern Cape province, to identify symptoms of tuberculosis (TB) and increase rates of diagnosis and treatment among people who seek their services. The intervention was launched in December 2018 and Eastern Cape was selected in part because it has the second highest burden of TB by province in South Africa.
