Health Minister Joe Phaahla has revealed that South Africa is still the epicentre of the Aids pandemic, with skyrocketing infections. Phaahla revealed this at the 11th health conference held in Durban on Tuesday
Health Minister Joe Phaahla has revealed that South Africa is still the epicentre of the Aids pandemic, with skyrocketing infections."South Africa is on the three global lists of high-burden countries for TB, HIV-associated TB, and drug-resistant TB. The World Health Organization estimates that over 110 000 people with TB in South Africa lost their lives between 2020 and 2021," he said.
Between 2019 and 2020, the number of TB tests provided in South Africa decreased by 23% and case notifications decreased by 25%. There has been some recovery since 2022, but it is estimated that the pandemic has reversed 12 years of global progress against TB. "For the people with undiagnosed TB, we plan to screen a million people, 60% PLHIV tested and notification of 215 900 patients through annual TB tests. This will be augmented by 300 000 chest X-rays screening. We will also introduce TB results notification system to patients via SMS to improve linkage to treatment. We will soon be using new molecular diagnostic tests for TB," he added.
"Through the implementation of the TB recovery plan, we are starting to see improvements in TB testing, notification and TB incidence. The number of GeneXpert tests done in 2019 was just over two million and decreased to 1.5 million due to Covid-19 in 2020. Since then, we have observed some recovery in TB testing, with 1.9 million tests done in 2021 and 2.5 million tests in 2022, which gives us signs that indeed this recovery plan will take us back to where we were before the pandemic.
The ministry said HIV, TB and STIs NSP, and the integration of TB and HIV services were opportunities to improve patients' experience. Approximately 60% of our TB patients are people living with HIV. This provides an opportunity for better patients' outcomes.Phaahla also mentioned he was pleased that the NHI bill had now proceeded to the National Council of Provinces.
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