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Interview: “The situation is not going away,” says inspiring TB doctor

Interview: “The situation is not going away,” says inspiring TB doctor

By Biénne Huisman,
Posted in: Latest, TB

Dr Juli Switala (42) has treated children in Nigeria, helped fatally ill patients during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and delivered babies at a hospital in Afghanistan against a backdrop of upheaval and violence. But nowhere cuts close to her heart quite like Brooklyn Chest – the tuberculosis (TB) hospital on Cape Town’s north-western fringes. Biénne Huisman chatted with Switala about her work in hospitals around the world, the challenges of treating kids with TB, and going for a run to get away from it all.

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In-depth: Can CO2 monitors help protect healthcare workers from TB?

In-depth: Can CO2 monitors help protect healthcare workers from TB?

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: Latest, TB

A recent study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases found that there was an association between healthcare workers’ exposure to high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their risk of being exposed to tuberculosis (TB). Elri Voigt unpacks the study’s findings and asks experts how CO2 monitors work, how well they predict the risk of TB exposure, and in which settings these monitors might be most useful.

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Hospital histories: Sizwe, where lives have been saved since Joburg’s earliest days

Hospital histories: Sizwe, where lives have been saved since Joburg’s earliest days

By Ufrieda Ho,
Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, TB

For the past 128 years, a hospital tucked away on what was once a rural farm in Johannesburg East has been fighting to turn the tables on a disease that has plagued humankind for millennia. Ufrieda Ho has the latest in Spotlight’s special series of ‘Hospital Histories’.

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Analysis: How does SA measure up against new TB recommendations?

Analysis: How does SA measure up against new TB recommendations?

By Marcus Low,
Posted in: Latest, TB

A new report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis (TB) titled ‘Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis’ makes several recommendations for how governments should go about fighting the deadly, but curable, disease. Spotlight editor Marcus Low puts the Spotlight on how South Africa’s TB programme is measuring up against the recommendations.

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Opinion: Better data and transparency needed if we are to live up to TB rhetoric at UN

Opinion: Better data and transparency needed if we are to live up to TB rhetoric at UN

By Sihle Mahonga Ndawonde,
Posted in: Latest, TB

The second United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis is taking place in New York today. Sihle Mahonga Ndawonde argues that better TB data and more transparency are needed in South Africa if we are to get and stay on the road to meeting the ambitious targets set and endorsed at this UN meeting.

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Interview: “The only good TB bacillus is a dead one”, says UCT’s Prof Valerie Mizrahi

Interview: “The only good TB bacillus is a dead one”, says UCT’s Prof Valerie Mizrahi

By Biénne Huisman,
Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, TB

Professor Valerie Mizrahi, a world-leading tuberculosis researcher and director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town, is retiring at the end of the year. Biénne Huisman sat down with Mizrahi to talk about her journey in TB research, passing the baton to a new generation of researchers, and how she helped build a research ecosystem that brings together specialists across the basic, clinical, and public health sciences.

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In-depth: Why an Eastern Cape TB hospital closed and what comes next

In-depth: Why an Eastern Cape TB hospital closed and what comes next

By Luvuyo Mehlwana,
Posted in: Eastern Cape, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces, TB

Two years ago Orsmond TB Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay closed its doors as a result of dwindling patient numbers. The closure made headlines for the fact that 45 staff members continued to be paid despite the closure. Luvuyo Mehlwana takes a closer look at both the situation at Orsmond and the wider trend of TB hospitals being closed or repurposed.

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Opinion: A UN meeting on TB is at best a means to more important ends

Opinion: A UN meeting on TB is at best a means to more important ends

By Marcus Low,
Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, TB

On September 22 ministers, heads of state, and other officials from around the world will gather in New York for the second United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB. Yet, a few months ago it was not the governments these officials represent, but two philanthropies that stepped in to ensure arguably the most important TB trial of the decade has the funding needed to proceed. Marcus Low contrasts commitments made at the previous UN High-Level Meeting on TB with recent data on funding for TB research and asks what this tells us about the state of the global response to an age-old killer.

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OPINION: A new African HIV Control Working Group to propel African voices in the global HIV response

OPINION: A new African HIV Control Working Group to propel African voices in the global HIV response

By Yogan Pillay and Izukanji Sikazwe,
Posted in: HIV/AIDS, Latest, TB

It is estimated that over 65% of the global HIV burden is in sub-Saharan Africa. Now, in an attempt to propel African voices and perspectives in the next phase of the HIV response in Africa, a group of Africans established an African-led HIV control working group (HCWG). They are all experts from the continent who have come together to develop consensus perspectives on the long-term sustained control of HIV and prioritise the systems and capabilities to achieve it. Drs Yogan Pillay and Izukanji Sikazwe explain the thinking behind the new working group and set out their objectives.

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TB contact tracing helps save lives – this is how it works in SA

TB contact tracing helps save lives – this is how it works in SA

By Tiyese Jeranji,
Posted in: Healthcare Workers, Latest, TB

Tracing the close contacts of people ill with tuberculosis (TB) and offering them TB preventive therapy is part of South Africa’s strategy to fight TB. A recent analysis found that such an approach of tracing household contacts and providing them with TB preventive treatment is cost-effective and would – by 2025 – cut deaths by 35% among household contacts of all ages and people living with HIV. In light of these new findings, Tiyese Jeranji assesses the state of contact tracing in South Africa’s public healthcare system.

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Funding secured for massive TB vaccine trial

Funding secured for massive TB vaccine trial

By Marcus Low,
Posted in: Latest, TB

A massive and much-anticipated phase 3 trial of an experimental tuberculosis (TB) vaccine is set to proceed after funding for it has been secured from two large philanthropies. If the trial’s findings are positive, the vaccine is likely to become the first new TB vaccine in over a hundred years to be widely used. Marcus Low reports.

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In-depth: Why is the Northern Cape missing its TB targets?

In-depth: Why is the Northern Cape missing its TB targets?

By Refilwe Mochoari,
Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, Northern Cape, TB

In March this year, the director-general of the Northern Cape government, Justice Bekebeke during a parliamentary oversight visit acknowledged that about 80% of the health facilities in the province did not meet their performance targets of finding people with tuberculosis and helping them complete treatment. Refilwe Mochoari looked at the statistics and spoke to several roleplayers about why the province is missing its TB targets.

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