Experts weigh in on the potential of ultrasound for diagnosing TB in kids

Posted in: Latest, TB

Tuberculosis can be challenging to diagnose in children, especially very young children. This is because it is difficult for them to cough up the sputum required by gold standard molecular tests and because they have fewer TB organisms in their sputum than adults. X-ray screening may be part of the solution, but it has shortcomings. Following some interesting recent study findings, Tiyese Jeranji asks what role lung ultrasound may have in improving TB detection in kids.

Experts weigh in on the potential of ultrasound for diagnosing TB in kids

Are oral swabs the future of TB testing?

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, TB

The World Health Organization estimates that every year 40% of people who fall ill with TB globally are not diagnosed. There is thus an urgent need for faster, safe, and more convenient TB tests. The current gold standard for testing still requires people to cough up sputum, something that some people and children, in particular, struggle with. Tiyese Jeranji looks at the potential of a new experimental oral swab TB test.

Are oral swabs the future of TB testing?

Editorial: How do we make an HIV and TB plan that has greater impact?

Posted in: Edition 8: NSP in general, Edition 9: State of HIV, Editorial, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, NSP and SANAC

South Africa’s new National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB, and STIs is being developed this year. Spotlight editor Marcus Low asks what we should aim for in the new strategy and how we should go about developing it.

Editorial: How do we make an HIV and TB plan that has greater impact?

Opinion: Time to take clean indoor air as seriously as we take clean water

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, TB

Wieda Human, Ingrid Schoeman, Ruvandhi Nathavitharana, Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen, and Ananja van der Westhuizen from TB Proof argue that we need to look upstream for solutions to improve indoor air quality.

Opinion: Time to take clean indoor air as seriously as we take clean water

Opinion: SA’s TB recovery doesn’t necessarily need a bigger budget, just reprioritisation

Posted in: Spotlight

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has stymied the progress of the tuberculosis response across the world, the call for increased investment is important. Although health programmes can always do with more financial assistance, in South Africa, for its TB Recovery Plan to work, the focus should be on the strategic use of existing resources, argues Russell Rensburg.

Opinion: SA’s TB recovery doesn’t necessarily need a bigger budget, just reprioritisation

Profile: Keertan Dheda – reflections on a career finding ways to fight TB

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, TB

Professor Keertan Dheda has come a long way from growing up as one of three siblings in a one-bedroom apartment in a high-rise in central Durban. Biénne Huisman chatted to Dheda, now the head of the University of Cape Town’s Division of Pulmonology, and a Professor in Mycobacteriology and Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, about work-life balance, problem-solving that excites him, and a career dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis.

What should the TB priorities be in the new NSP?

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, TB

The period covered by South Africa’s National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB, and STIs 2017 – 2022 will soon come to an end. Against the backdrop of another World TB Day, Tiyese Jeranji asked several local tuberculosis experts what they think the TB priorities should be as South Africa develops an NSP for the next five years.

What should the TB priorities be in the new NSP?

Are long-acting injections the future of TB prevention?

Posted in: Edition 10: Drug-resistant TB, Edition 14: Tuberculosis, Edition 7: TB, Healthcare system, Latest, TB

Long-acting injections have been successfully used as contraception and more recently HIV prevention. Now researchers are exploring whether similar long-acting injections could be used for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis. Tiyese Jeranji reports.

Are long-acting injections the future of TB prevention?

Opinion: It is time to invest in ending TB in SA

Posted in: Edition 10: Drug-resistant TB, Healthcare system, Latest, TB

Investing in tuberculosis means that everyone has a stake in eliminating TB as a public health threat in our country: every person, every family, every community, every organisation (public and private) as well as government, writes Dr Yogan Pillay and Gaurang Tanna.

Opinion: It is time to invest in ending TB in SA

Good and bad news about new TB vaccines

Posted in: Edition 10: Drug-resistant TB, Edition 7: TB, Healthcare system, Latest, TB

While there are nine experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccines in advanced trials, the vaccine pipeline beyond those nine prospects is relatively depleted. Adele Baleta reports on this and much more from the virtual Global TB Vaccine Forum held last week.

Questions over implementation of SA’s new infection control plan

Posted in: COVID-19, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces

Whether it is in the queue outside a community healthcare clinic, in a GP’s waiting room, or in the ICU at a private sector hospital, infections acquired at healthcare facilities pose a threat to people’s health. Nthusang Lefafa looks at government’s recently relaunched infection prevention and control plans and some obstacles to its implementation.

Questions over implementation of SA’s new infection control plan

Health in 2021: Another tumultuous year in under a thousand words

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Child health, COVID-19, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, Mental Health, NHI, Provinces, TB

It wasn’t rocket science when we predicted at the start of 2021 that South Africa’s biggest challenge this year would be to get COVID-19 shots into as many arms as possible. But the way it has played out with multiple setbacks and scrambling problem-solving is not something anyone could have predicted. In fewer than a thousand words, Spotlight editor Marcus Low takes a look back at a tumultuous year in health in South Africa.