Mzansi gets funding boost for fight against TB
South Africa’s ongoing efforts to respond to Tuberculosis (TB) have been strengthened with funding of $94 million for the next five years.
“Just over R4 billion was budgeted in the 2024/2025 [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 Global Fund and 8% from United States government commitments,” Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla said on Sunday (March 24) in Sedibeng.
The Minister was addressing South Africa’s commemorations for World TB Day, which is being observed under the theme: “Yes! You and I Can End TB”.
“We applaud the announcement by National Department of Health and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of the award of the Accelerate Tuberculosis Elimination and Program Resilience Activity (referred to as ACCELERATE) in the amount of $94 million for the next five years.
“As government, we welcome the generous support from Global Fund and the United States government and appreciate their continued support towards HIV, TB and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) response,” Phaahla said.
In addition, the TB Programme of the National Department of Health has developed a comprehensive TB Recovery Plan dashboard, which is used by provinces and districts to monitor the progress of the TB programme.
The department has also developed an HIV and TB dashboard in the Health Information Centre.
“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,” the Minister said.
Progress in fight against TB
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 said.
At last year’s commemoration South Africa launched the NSP for HIV, TB and STIs for the period 2023 to 2028 with ambitious targets for TB and the other two epidemics.
“The National Department of Health has further developed a TB Strategic Plan, which lifts our very pertinent actions that must be taken to address the TB specific challenges as we go towards the end date. This TB strategic plan is fully aligned with our NSP for HIV, TB and STIs and it will inform the content of the annual TB Recovery Plans for the period 2023 to 2027.