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The global measures to end the tuberculosis epidemic are showing signs of recovery post-Covid. More cases have been diagnosed and the number of people who died from the disease has gone down. Despite this apparent recovery, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says urgent action is needed to end the global TB epidemic by 2030. On Tuesday the WHO launched the global TB report which takes stock of the epidemic and the progress towards its elimination. The report paints a stark picture: targets for TB treatment, prevention and funding have been missed. TB is preventable and curable, but it was the world’s second leading cause of death from an infectious disease in 2022. It spreads through the air when a person who is sick with the disease sneezes, spits or coughs. It often affects the lungs but can occur in other parts of the body. Globally in 2022, TB caused an
Dr Jaishree Raman is a Principal Medical Scientist and the head of the Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Malaria exerts a huge public health burden on communities within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). More than three-quarters of the region’s population live in malaria-risk areas. The disease is endemic to 14 of the 16 countries that make up the SADC region. These countries are: Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The malaria risk varies widely within and between the countries. Four SADC countries (Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania) account for approximately a quarter of the global malaria burden. On the other extreme, Mauritius has eliminated malaria and is preventing the reintroduction of malaria. Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa are identified by
Charles Shey Wiysonge, Stellenbosch University The BCG vaccine for TB has been used for 100 years. It is largely effective for children under five, but less so in older people and can’t be used on patients who have certain medical conditions. Today we’re the closest we’ve ever been to discovering a vaccine that might replace or complement it. Charles Shey Wiysonge, the World Health Organization’s Regional Adviser for Immunisation, discusses the latest developments in the fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases. Why has it taken so long? We do not yet have a new vaccine for TB. But, for the first time, there are several vaccine candidates that are at advanced stages of clinical development. Vaccine development usually takes decades and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. Clinical trials are
Lerato Mthunzi, Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) General Secretary October is mental health awareness month and as it draws to an end, a few key issues must be highlighted to make this month less of a ritualistic procession filled with lofty rhetoric, yet minimal action. South Africa is a nation affected by high levels of mental illness. It is important to deal meaningfully with the serious issue of mental illness. In 2022, the MRC/Wits Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) released a paper titled, “The prevalence of probable depression and probable anxiety, and the associations with adverse childhood experiences and socio-demographics: A National Survey in South Africa”. The report found that more than a quarter of South Africans suffer from “probable depression”. These alarming statistics are of grave concern, and it should force us to recognise that this is a crisis which deserves our attention all
Mmamapudi Kubjane, University of the Witwatersrand and Leigh Johnson, University of Cape Town Around the world, men are more likely to get TB and to die from it than women. We recently conducted research to establish the various factors that explain higher rates of TB among men in South Africa. South Africa is ranked among the top six countries contributing to 60% of the global burden of TB. Our main finding was that men are 70% more likely to develop TB and die from the disease, compared to women. We estimated that in 2019, 801 per 100,000 adult men developed TB while among women the rate was 478 per 100,000. Current TB interventions focus on biomedical approaches emphasising preventive TB medication, diagnosing TB patients and treating them with anti-TB drugs. Our research demonstrates, however, that dealing with socioeconomic conditions and other determinants of TB is also important. Men’s access to
Prof David Katerere, Tshwane University of Technology Research Chair in Pharmaceutical & Biotech Advancement in Africa (PBA2) Traditional medicine is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as healthcare which is embedded in traditions and people’s heritage. It ranges from the use of herbal medicine all the way to traditional bone setting which is quite common in some countries like Nigeria. It includes techniques such as meditation, so-called mindfulness, acupuncture as well as aromatherapy. It has a long history of use among many different ethnic groups and has proven its utility. How it works and why it works cannot always be explained by modern science. Every tradition in the world, whether it’s European (Nordic, Gaelic, Germanic, etc), Chinese, African, Japanese or Amazonian has a place for traditional medicine in one form or another. Thus, traditional medicine is widely used around the world. This may be due to lack of
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Jane Battersby, University of Cape Town and Gareth Haysom, University of Cape Town DISCLAIMER: This is an old piece from 2018, but which still holds relevance. Our News Editor Ina Skosana was previously at The Conversation Africa. Owners of small shops in South Africa – in most cases foreigners – have been accused of stocking counterfeit food and food that’s past its sell-by date. The issue has been caught up in xenophobic violence, with shop owners targeted by South Africans . There is very little hard data about what’s referred to as “fake food” in both the formal and informal sectors. This means the issue is politically charged and dominated by opinions, not evidence. The Conversation Africa’s Ina Skosana asked Jane Battersby-Lennard and Gareth Haysom to unpack this issue. What is counterfeit food? There are many different kinds of counterfeiting. Not all pose a risk to consumers, though some clearly
Glenda Gray, South African Medical Research Council South African-born Professor Hoosen “Jerry” Coovadia, renowned academic and prominent anti-apartheid activist, passed away on 4 October. As a paediatrician I was privileged to know and work with him over two decades. Prior to that I knew him when we were both health activists in apartheid South Africa. In 2019 Coovadia was profiled in the leading health academic journal, The Lancet, as an icon in South African health. The profile described him as the “Nelson Mandela of health”. This was in tribute to his dedication to ameliorating the diseases that afflicted children of South Africa, like malnutrition, measles and HIV, and his role in health activism. In 2014, in my capacity as the president of the South African Medical Research Council, I was honoured to award him the SAMRC Presidential Award in recognition of his life-long work in child health, his impact in
Primrose Freestone, University of Leicester Every year, around 2.4 million people in the UK get food poisoning – mostly from viral or bacterial contamination. Most people recover within a few days without treatment, but not all are that lucky. As a microbiologist, I’m probably more acutely aware of the risk of food-borne infections than most. Here are some of the things I look out for. Eating outdoors I rarely eat alfresco – whether picnics or barbecues – as the risk of food poisoning goes up when food is taken outdoors. Keeping your hands clean when handling food is key to not getting sick, but how often do you find hot running water and soap in a park or on a beach? You can use alcohol hand gels (they’re better than nothing), but they don’t kill all germs. Also, food tends to attract an array of flying and crawling critters, such
David Martin Shaw, University of Basel; Philip Lewis, University of Cologne, and Thomas C. Erren, University of Cologne We expect medical professionals to give us reliable information about ourselves and potential treatments so that we can make informed decisions about which (if any) medicine or other intervention we need. If your doctor instead “bullshits” you (yes – this term has been used in academic publications to refer to persuasion without regard for truth, and not as a swear word) under the deception of authoritative medical advice, the decisions you make could be based on faulty evidence and may result in harm or even death. Bullshitting is distinct from lying – liars do care about the truth and actively try to conceal it. Indeed bullshitting can be more dangerous than an outright lie. Fortunately, of course, doctors don’t tend to bullshit – and if they did there would be, one hopes,