South Africa’s commitment to combatting Tuberculosis (TB) has received a significant boost with the allocation of $94 million in funding for the upcoming five years, further fortifying its ongoing efforts.
“Just over R4 billion was budgeted in the 2024/25 [financial year], meeting the projected needs for implementing the National Strategic Plan (NSP). Seventy-one percent of the TB budget is from domestic sources, 21% from the Global Fund and 8% from the United States Government commitments,” the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, said on Sunday.
The Minister welcomed the announcement by the National Department of Health and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the approval of the Accelerate Tuberculosis Elimination and Program Resilience Activity (referred to as ACCELERATE) worth $94 million for the next five years.
“As government, we welcome the generous support from the Global Fund and the United States Government and appreciate their continued support towards HIV, TB and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),” Phaahla said.
The TB Programme within the National Department of Health has also formulated a TB Recovery Plan dashboard. This tool is utilised by provinces and districts for the purpose of monitoring the advancement of the TB program. The department has constructed an HIV and TB dashboard housed within the Health Information Centre as well.
“The South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) Situation Room is a state-of the-art data consolidation and visualisation hub built at the SANAC offices in Pretoria but can be accessed virtually from anywhere in the world.
“There is an enormous quantity of data that is generated in many parts and entities of South Africa. It exists in silos and that fragmentation is due to the lack of a central data repository and management point.
“This has made monitoring and evaluation of the country’s efforts against HIV, TB and STIs rather difficult. These new data visualisation dashboards have been set up precisely to address that challenge,” Minister Phaahla said.
Although South Africa remains among the TB high burden countries, there has been notable progress in the country’s fight against the disease.
“A steady decline has been noted in the number of people diagnosed with TB each year since 2007 where the figure was 644 000 compared to 280 000 in 2022. TB-related deaths are falling, but at a much slower rate,” the minister concluded.
Compiled by Warren Hawkins
