Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has officially launched a groundbreaking national tuberculosis (TB) campaign, emphasising the disease’s silent yet deadly impact.
The Minister presented the near-live, TB public-facing dashboard at the Health Laboratory Service Head Office in Johannesburg, describing it as a symbol of the department’s strong commitment to using digital innovation to enhance health equity.
“It is an investment in the power of data to save lives. Our political will to end TB is very strong and unwavering,” he said on Friday.
The TB dashboard is part of collaborative efforts between the Department of Health, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS). Its aim is to reduce TB incidence and mortality in South Africa by 2035.
The country has a high burden of TB, but remains on track to meet the End TB goals. The dashboard will play a significant role in tracking the country’s progress towards the End TB campaign’s ambitious goal of testing five million people.
The Minister also touched on the impact of historical gold mining on TB rates, with gold mines producing significant silica dust. “Today, we are paying the price for that gold because of the amount of TB that was produced in the gold mines.”
The Minister said the newly launched dashboard represents a critical tool in TB detection and tracking.
Motsoaledi explained that the comprehensive dashboard offers a detailed view of testing trends over time, allowing users to monitor progress and identify gaps.
“It provides granular performance tracking across different administrative levels, including province and district. Crucially, the data is aggregated by age and sex to highlight who is being reached by testing efforts and to identify specific populations that may be underserved.”
The dashboard provides near real-time data on the department’s testing efforts across all nine provinces and districts, empowering stakeholders to monitor progress transparently.
The End TB campaign has also revealed stark gender disparities in health-seeking behaviour, citing previous HIV testing campaigns that showed that 65% of those who tested were women, and that men constituted only 30% of those tested.
Motsoaledi said a key focus is developing a vaccine. He expressed hope that in three years, vaccine trials would be completed. – SAnews.gov.za
