TB - The African Mirror

Mar

2023

TB kills 75,000 children in Africa every year: how this can stop

TUBERCULOSIS (TB) is a preventable and curable disease. Half of the world’s 30 highest TB burden countries are in Africa. In many of these countries, TB is the leading cause of death across age groups, but especially among children. Globally, TB is the leading cause of death by any single infectious agent (above COVID-19 and HIV). Author GRAEME HODDINOTT, Socio-behavioural Scientist and Senior Researcher, Stellenbosch University The people most affected by TB are often the most socio-economically marginalised, with the fewest reserves to take them through the treatment journey. This is extremely challenging, with complex, often delayed diagnosis, many months…

Sep

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 disruption causing many deaths from TB, AIDS in poorest countries, fund says

COVID-19

EMMA FARGE HUNDREDS of thousands of people will die of tuberculosis left untreated because of disruption to healthcare systems in poor countries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a global aid fund said. In a few of the world's poorest countries, excess deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) could even exceed those from the coronavirus itself, said the head of the Geneva-based aid body, known as the Global Fund. The Fund's annual report for 2020, released on Wednesday, showed that the number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis in countries where it operates fell by 19%. A decline of 11% was…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

First ever national survey shows the extent of South Africa’s TB problem

HEALTH

SOUTH Africa’s long-awaited tuberculosis (TB) prevalence survey results were recently released. This is the first national prevalence survey of its kind for TB in South Africa. EMILY B. WONG, Assistant Professor, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) ALISON GRANT, Professor of International Health at LSHTM and Member of Faculty, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) TB prevalence surveys are difficult and expensive to do, and so are not carried out routinely, but have been done in many high burden countries following a World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation in 2007. In the absence of prevalence survey data, TB estimates are based on the…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

After battling TB and COVID-19, a South African doctor reaches breaking point

COVID-19

KIM HARRISBERG ZOLELWA Sifumba described the daily injection she got to treat tuberculosis as feeling like hot lava being pumped slowly into her body, leaving the young South African doctor with crippling joint pain and incessant nausea. She thought her 18-month fight against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis was a career low-point until - five years on - she fell ill with COVID-19 and acute anxiety while working on the pandemic frontlines with scant protective equipment and support. "I'm tired of almost dying all the time," said Sifumba, 29, who blogs and campaigns on doctors' health issues, speaking from the Durban psychiatric hospital…