Parliament relaunches SA TB Caucus to combat deadly disease


Parliament, in partnership with the Department of Health and the South African National AIDS Council, hosted the relaunch of the South African Tuberculosis (TB) Caucus this past week.

Tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest yet most preventable and curable diseases.

Over the past year, South Africa recorded approximately 270 000 new TB infections and more than 50 000 related deaths.

The relaunch of the SA TB caucus is a recommitment to shine the light on the curable disease.

Health Minister Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi has called on Parliament to ensure that it gains momentum. “We are reforming it again and won’t let it disappear again. We have the End TB campaign, where we are testing 5 million people for TB annually. This is a mammoth of a task.”

Motsoaledi adds that the department has launched an initiative that makes tracking new cases easier.

“The department and the SA institute for communicable disease launched a near-live TB dashboard that will help all 5 million tested people to be followed up on, e.g., which gender was tested, in what village, how many people tested, and the age groups.”

Parliament is at the forefront of this drive. The acting chairperson of the Health portfolio committee, Sheila Xego, says the seventh administration is fully behind this drive.

“This is a powerful renewed commitment to end one of the oldest, deadliest diseases; relaunch is a call to action.”

And the partners of this Caucus are confident that this renewed focus will help bring an end to the TB epidemic by 2030.

The co-chairperson of SANAC Solly Nduko says the establishment and strength of this TB Caucus is a critical step to end TB.