Hope on the horizon for TB sufferers

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

"I was terrified thinking that I was going to die because I knew nothing about TB other than what I saw on TV," said popular South African TV personality Gerry Elsdon. She was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the womb nine years ago.

Today, Elsdon advocates for the rights of people affected by the disease. She is an ambassador for the country's Kick TB campaign and the TB advocate for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Gabi Khumalo reports.

South Africa is ranked fifth on the list of 22 high-burden tuberculosis (TB) countries in the world. According to the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) Global TB Report 2009, South Africa had nearly 460 000 new TB cases in 2007, with an incidence rate of an estimated 948 cases per 100 000 population- a major increase from 338 cases per 100 000 population in 1998.

KwaZulu-Natal is reported to have the highest TB case load in the country with around 119 000 cases reported per annum.

For Elsdon, getting infected with the disease prompted her to learn more about it. And learning about the fact that it is a curable disease and treatment is available for free at all public health facilities, prompted her to want to educate others about it,

"Due to the lack of information, there is a need to make people understand TB better. The frustration of discovering that one has TB is killing people, even people with information," said Elsdon, who has since become infertile due to the disease.

She said while funding in the fight against the TB has increased, communities need to get involved by participating in campaigns such as Kick TB and the recently launched new Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015: Transforming the Fight - Towards the Elimination of Tuberculosis.

The new and improved plan is action oriented and, for the first time identifies all the research gaps that need to be filled to bring rapid TB tests, faster treatment regimes and a fully effective vaccine to the market. The plan hopes to save more than five million lives in the next five years.

The new plan follows the launch of the Stop TB Partnership in 2006, whose goals were to reach the MDG of halting and beginning to reverse the epidemic by 2015, and halve TB prevalence and death rates.

Launched recently, the new plan also shows public health programmes how to drive universal access to TB care, including how to modernise diagnostic laboratories and adapt revolutionary TB tests that have recently become available.

Chairperson of the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board, Rifat Atun, said the new plan's goals include laboratory strengthening, research and updated targets for TB care.

"The plan aims to reduce deaths and TB prevalence. If we are able to execute the plan, we need to scale up efforts in TB diagnosis, expand capacity to laboratories and develop new vaccines," said Atun.

However, Atun warned that 10 million people will die of TB in the next five years if global funding to fight the disease is not increased.

The plan needs $37 billion to be implemented and $47 billion is needed to save five million lives between now and 2015, including two million women and children.

"We need a plan to stop these completely unnecessary deaths and if we are able to carry out this plan, we will treat 32 million people and save five million lives," Atun said.

According to the Stop TB Partnership, nine million people contract TB, which hits hardest in the developing world, with most cases occurring in Asia and Africa.

Director of the Stop TB Department at the WHO, Mario Raviglione, described the new plan as an excellent way to curb the disease.

"TB is an ancient disease and should have been eliminated by today," he said, noting that the pandemic is slowly declining but far too slow.

"This fight [against TB] is a marathon, and not a 10 km race and we are currently at the start of the marathon. We need to combat TB together, fight alcohol and tobacco abuse, which are the most sources of TB."

Gauteng Health and Social Development MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, said while South Africa was among the 22 countries which carries 80 percent of the TB burden worldwide, the country had made progress in treating the disease, with the numbers of infected people declining.

"We've accepted the responsibility of scaling up the fight against TB, HIV and AIDS. We urged the Southern African Developing Community to invest in this plan to help get rid of TB. It's possible for us to stop it," she said.

President and CEO of the Global Business Coalition on HIV and AIDS, John Tedstrom, said the new plan was desperately needed as TB matters to business, adding that if more people are infected, it results in less production and high absenteeism.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Paul De Lay warned that TB is five times more severe than it should be due to HIV and stressed the importance for everyone to know their HIV status and to get screened for TB consistently.

"ARVs don't cure TB and TB drugs don't cure HIV, hence the need to integrate them to eradicate discrimination and deaths," De Lay said.

TB and HIV activist Carol Nawina Nyirenda said the plan provided a much needed 'blue print' in the fight to stop TB.

"It gives TB a high priority," Nyirenda said and reiterated the importance of integrating TB and HIV treatment. She commended South Africa's HIV, Counselling and Testing campaign, which encourages more people to get tested and to know their status.