This, as today the world observes World TB Day. Despite being curable, tuberculosis remains a leading infectious disease. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), each day nearly 4 500 people lose their lives to TB while close to 30 000 people fall ill with the disease. 

Provincial health MEC, Montseng Tsiu, together with Premier Sisi Ntombela will today lead an event set to be held in QwaQwa to raise awareness about TB and the plight faced by people infected. 

Health spokesperson, Mondli Mvambi, says the commemoration of World TB Day serves as an opportunity to raise more awareness about the devastating health, social and economic impact of the illness and to urge all citizens in the province to join efforts to end the global TB epidemic. 

He, in a statement, says they are committed to end TB by treating infected people to completion and intensifying efforts of tracing those who default on medication to complete their treatment.

Meanwhile, a number of health organisations across the country and social media users have taken to Twitter and Facebook to raise questions over drug-resistant TB, and pose questions as to whether the country’s ailing health system is doing enough to curb the spread of TB and other infectious diseases.

Each year World TB Day is commemorated on March 24. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.

OFM News