In a written reply to a parliamentary question, the department says they are keeping records of the number of persons in the country who are diagnosed with these diseases and other life-threatening diseases in order to meet health demands in the country and to ensure that sufficient medication is supplied to all public facilities.

This, as questions are mounting over the department’s plans to deal with the spread of TB and to ensure safe healthcare following a study by the Washington University’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which revealed that 5.3 million South Africans under the age of 50 are HIV-positive.

The study, which focused on people living with the virus across 46 African countries, indicated that the provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State has the highest number of HIV infected people. 

With South Africa also being counted amongst one of the countries with the highest burden of TB, the department has indicated that they are paying attention to these diseases and to ensure that citizens have easy access to medication and overall quality health care.

The department has also indicated that the number of people infected with tuberculosis and pneumonia is high across the country and in the three provinces where there is a high number of people living with HIV, but it remains minimal in the Northern Cape.

Although the report does not detail reasons as to how the numbers remain minimal in this geographical vast province, its low population is suspected to be one of the reasons why it remains the province with the least number of people infected with tuberculosis and pneumonia. 

Only 2,160 cases for TB were recorded in the province during the first quarter of the year while the highest number of cases was recorded in KwaZulu-Natal with 11,976 cases.

OFM News