
Nurse raises awareness about TB symptoms, treatment and prevention
Through community education, she aims to inform the public about how TB spreads, how it can be prevented, and why early diagnosis is crucial.
'TB mainly affects the lungs but can spread to other parts of the body. It spreads through the air when a person with active TB coughs, sneezes, or even speaks.
'TB is not a death sentence, but when left untreated or poorly managed, it becomes life-threatening,' explained Mofokeng.
Mofokeng mentioned that she currently works in a male medical ward and one of the most painful realities she faces is the high rate of treatment default among TB patients.
ALSO CHECK: Trauma Support SA urges public to help maintain essential trauma care services
She highlighted that many start their medication feeling hopeful, but due to various challenges like side effects, lack of support, poverty, or stigma, they stop taking their treatment before completion.
'I have seen patients return weeks or months later, far sicker than before. Some have drug-resistant TB, while others are too ill to recover.
'What breaks my heart most is knowing that these deaths are preventable. South Africa carries one of the highest burdens of TB in the world.
'According to the World Health Organization, over 200,000 new TB cases are reported annually here, and the majority of them are among the most economically active age group,' she cited.
Mofokeng further noted a correlation between HIV and TB. She has treated countless patients who are co-infected with both, which complicates treatment and increases the risk of death. Early detection is critical.
ALSO CHECK: Unjani Clinic donates gardening tools to Wright Park community garden for elderly residents
Do not ignore these warning signs:
• A cough lasting longer than two weeks
• Unexplained weight loss
• Drenching night sweats
• Fatigue
• Fever or chills
• Coughing up blood
'If you experience these symptoms or know someone who does, please go to your nearest clinic immediately. TB treatment in South Africa is completely free at public clinics. It involves a six-month course of treatment. However, for treatment to be successful, it must be taken every single day without fail.
'I have seen what happens when patients skip doses or stop early. The bacteria become resistant, and we are left with fewer and far more toxic treatment options.
'This is known as drug-resistant TB, and it is a growing threat in our country. The painful part is witnessing an increase in cases where, even after some patients have been re-initiated on treatment, they still default.
'This then makes them acquire multi-drug resistance. There is a huge challenge with tuberculosis in the hospitals, which are full of people who were unable to comply with treatment,' added Mofokeng.
Some of the most common challenges patients face include:
• Lack of food to take with medication
• Fear of stigma or being judged
• Side effects from the medication
• Long clinic queues or transport issues
• Poor understanding of the importance of completing treatment
• Prevention and community action:
Here is how the community can help prevent the spread of TB:
• Encourage early screening and testing
• Improve ventilation in homes and workplaces
• Promote good cough etiquette and hygiene
• Support those on treatment, emotionally and practically
At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Citizen
an hour ago
- The Citizen
Health budget: R1.7 billion for new staff and millions granted by Gates foundation
Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced a R64 billion health budget and a R200 million HIV/ Aids research grant from international funders. The department of health plans to spend billions on recruiting new professionals and infrastructure development over the coming financial year. Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced the coming years' objectives during his budget speech in parliament on Tuesday. The minister added that international organisations will plug the gap left in South Africa's HIV/ Aids programmes by the Pepfar decision. He conceded that the department did not have 'all the money' needed to achieve these objectives, but was in discussions with international and local funders. R64 billion budget Motsoaledi announced that the department had been allocated an overall budget of R64 billion for the 2025/26 financial year. The budget will be used by the department to achieve three main objectives; number one being a laying of the foundations for the National Health Insurance (NHI). 'There are people who believe that we have no plans nor inclination to do that. We want them to listen very attentively,' assured Motsoaledi. Ensuring adequate facilities and sufficient staff would be the backbone of NHI, the minister has earmarked R1.7 billion for the hiring 1 200 doctors and 450 nurses and support staff. A further R1.4 billion will be spent on absorbing 27 000 community health workers who had previously been employed by non-governmental organisations. To 'make public hospitals hospitable', R1.3 billion will be spent on beds, linen, towels, basin and other similar items. Infrastructure upgrade During the last financial year, Motsoaledi boasted that 47 existing clinics and 45 hospitals had been 'substantially' refurbished, while 403 public health facilities had been upgraded. Additionally, five new facilities were completed during the last financial year, and six are currently under construction, and 17 are in the design and development stage. 'These facilities and their placement are not a thumbs-up. We are using a digital system called the Health Infrastructure Portfolio System,' explained the minister. 'This digital system has a geographic information system, district information system and other data tools that help us understand and plan the health system,' he added. The department will also spend R3.75 billion paying accruals — expenses recorded but not paid in earlier financial years — for equipment and pharmaceuticals. The second of Motsoaledi's objectives is to implement 'serious reforms' in the private healthcare system — a goal he did not elaborate on. 'Please ignore those who want us to believe that there is nothing to fix in that sector,' he said. Pepfar replacement Third on Motsoaledi's list is the elimination of diseases such as HIV/ Aids, tuberculosis, malaria and some cancers. 'The time has now arrived to start dreaming about a future with a certain disease gone from our country,' Speaking on the impact of the Pepfar withdrawals, he stated the department would not allow South Africa's HIV programmes to collapse. He said negotiations with treasury had resulted in the allocation of R753 million for provincial and national HIV/ Aids-related support. This will be boosted by R100 million research contributions by both The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and London-based researchers the Wellcome Trust. The grants are conditional based on Treasury's commitment to double it, meaning the R200 million from the international funders will be backed by R400 million from Treasury, which is to be released more than three years for HIV/ Aids treatment. Part of this treatment will include the piloting of HIV/ Aids wonderdrug Lenacapavir, a twice-annually injection that claims to have a 100% success rate in preventing HIV/ Aids in women. NOW READ: Health minister weaponising racial bias report to push NHI, says IRR


Daily Maverick
13 hours ago
- Daily Maverick
Slow-motion denialism — our leaders are allowing the HIV response to collapse
South Africa is staging a sequel to Mbeki-era denialism, only this time the science, solutions and costs are clearer. Tragically, we have politicians showing the same disregard for despairing public health experts sounding the alarm and civil society's calls for engagement. Treasury's token contribution, President Cyril Ramaphosa's and the Government of National Unity's (GNU) silence, Deputy President Paul Mashatile's empty promises and Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi's fabricated success, mean the current child and adult deaths and unnecessary infections are mounting. Exactly six months after the abrupt withdrawal of billions of rands in support to South Africa from the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), there is still no plan. In May, in response to concerns about HIV service weaknesses, Motsoaledi claimed 520,000 people were initiated on HIV treatment between February and April, a number already almost halfway towards his 'Close the Gap' campaign target. This remarkable success claimed by the minister occurred during a collapse in funding, staffing and testing, and was achieved simply with 'roadshows' and unnamed community programmes. This would represent one of the most remarkable HIV global service delivery achievements yet, given three months of massive funding withdrawal and service collapse. Yet, in the past few weeks: National Health Laboratory Services data shows CD4 test volumes are down sharply from 2024. If more people were entering care, these numbers would rise. This is the clearest indicator we have that far fewer people are entering care. The minister's claim that more than 500,000 people were added to the number on HIV treatment is thus implausible; New data from Johannesburg show HIV diagnoses and people starting treatment are down nearly one-third since Pepfar's withdrawal. In Gauteng, the province with the highest HIV burden, the minister's 520,000 number should be immediately reflected in numbers like these. Yet we are seeing the numbers go down rather than up; Community monitors from Ritshidze – an organisation that monitors the ARV programme – report steep drops in testing, medicine pickups and staff capacity in government facilities offering HIV services. 'Do more with less' is not a realistic strategy to address this; Early infant diagnosis rates have somewhat recovered, too late for many. Infants with HIV have extremely high mortality. These are the bodies behind the pause the minister refuses to call a collapse; A report by Avac, an HIV advocacy organisation, showed most key population programmes have been terminated. 'Key populations' refers to groups at particularly high risk of HIV such as sex workers and men who have sex with men. The government claimed that the patient files from the clinics that provided services to key populations have been transferred to other clinics. But staff at some of the defunded organisations providing these services have told me, despairingly, that key population clinic files now sit, unopened, in overwhelmed clinics; The Clinical HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg shut its cervical cancer screening and prevention clinic in June; and The Global Fund, our significant remaining donor, cut funding to South Africa's current grants by 16%, reducing it by R1.4-billion. The Treasury 'emergency' funding announced last week amounts to roughly half of what the Global Fund cut, and only 6% of the Pepfar cut. Repeated offers of help and pleas for meetings and consultations from local experts and civil society have been ignored by the country's leaders. This includes a letter signed by numerous organisations and individuals from across the country's most respected institutions, setting 7 July as a deadline for a response. Constant promises that the 'plans' for mitigating the HIV programme will be released have not materialised. Reassurances that provinces are getting support is not being experienced by any of the provincial colleagues I speak to. Mashatile has doubled down on the 520,000 number, telling Parliament that the withdrawal of Pepfar funding 'has spurred on' the government to become more 'self-reliant', using BRICS, Lotto and domestic funding to plug the gap, with no details as to how this will happen. He claimed no patient will suffer, despite local studies warning of massive waves of new deaths and infections, multiple anecdotes in the press to the contrary, and submissions by public figures to the Portfolio Committee on Health on service interruptions. Both Mashatile and Motsoaledi have repeatedly lamented, correctly, the severe reliance of our health system on external donors, but have not acknowledged that they have been fully responsible for the health system for almost all of Pepfar's existence. Concerned academics directly responsible for shaping the Department of Health's HIV response, who have called for the minister to explain his 520,000 figure, have not been answered. This crisis is fixable. It requires immediate reinvestment in defunded organisations, the rehiring of experienced managers and an honest medium-term plan for service integration within our health system. None of this is happening. There is no urgency, no leadership and no public plan. Motsoaledi says there is 'no collapse' but patients are dying without diagnosis, and others are acquiring HIV without prevention. Call it what you want. The system is failing. The minister's claims of 'no collapse' ring hollow for the people left stranded with no services, waiting to die for want of a diagnosis and treatment, or unnecessarily contracting HIV for lack of effective prevention. Recent local modelling has shown the Pepfar collapse may result in tens of thousands of preventable deaths, if services are not replaced. The Ramaphosa-Motsoaledi-GNU era risks a ruined legacy, not for failing to stop this crisis, but for pretending it wasn't happening. DM Professor Francois Venter is a clinician researcher at Wits University. He led a large Pepfar programme until 2012 and has had a support role since then. He and his unit do not receive Pepfar, CDC or USAID funding.


The South African
2 days ago
- The South African
Cervical and Cervical Cancer in Focus: A Cross-Continental Fight Led by Movement Health Foundation
In the Lambayeque region of northern Peru, stories of delay and loss echo quietly through generations. They are not captured in photographs or archived in official records, but live in the memories of families who have waited too long for care that never came soon enough. In distant towns and rural communities, the journey to a clinic can take hours, and even then, the tools needed for screening are often out of reach. In South Africa, across the ocean but bound by the same fate, women in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal wait—not for doctors, but for answers. The nearest hospital is 60 kilometres away. Transport costs nearly a third of their monthly income. And so, they wait—not just for diagnoses, but for the right to be heard. In these places, cancer is not simply a medical condition. It is the result of geography, of poverty, of a history written without their names. More often than not, it is an inheritance. The fight against it—especially breast and cervical cancer—demands more than science. It demands justice. The cost of delay is not just time. It's lives. Globally, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women. Cervical cancer is the most preventable. And yet, they continue to take the lives of women in low- and middle-income countries at staggering rates. In South Africa, cervical cancer is responsible for more cancer-related deaths among women than any other type. In Peru, more than 4,000 women were diagnosed with the disease last year—many of them poor, and a disproportionate number Indigenous or Afroperuvian. Too many were diagnosed late, reflecting persistent gaps in early screening and access to timely care. To delay care is to decide who is worthy of survival. In both countries, early screening remains rare, while advanced-stage diagnoses are the norm. In Peru, screening levels for cervical cancer plummeted by 76% during the pandemic. In South Africa, 75% of cervical cancer cases are detected only after the disease has progressed beyond early intervention. And in the townships and rural provinces, where HIV prevalence is high and stigma travels faster than treatment, those odds worsen by the day. The Movement Health Foundation operates outside the spotlight. Instead, it works through local institutions, public clinics, and digital infrastructure, where change is measured not in headlines but in wait times shortened and referrals completed. With the Clinton Global Initiative as its commitment partner, the Foundation is now leading cancer interventions in Peru and South Africa that are designed not just to treat, but to reimagine the system itself. In South Africa, a Progressive Web App developed with Nelson Mandela University is helping women navigate cervical cancer screening—from understanding symptoms, to locating clinics, to preparing for appointments in their home language. The app includes voice input, offline features, and maps for rural areas. In Peru, the model is different, but the need is the same. A workflow coordination tool—originally piloted for maternal health in Cusco—is being adapted to help local clinics track screenings and patient referrals for breast and cervical cancer. The new program, under development in Lambayeque and Arequipa, targets 170,000 women and is built to scale to additional regions by 2026. The legacy of inequality cannot be fixed by apps alone. The question is whether these digital tools are surface patches or the beginning of deeper structural reform. Under new executive director Bogi Eliasen, the Foundation is positioning itself as a bridge between the technological and the political. 'We are not interested in pilots that fade,' Eliasen has said. 'We are building infrastructure that learns, adapts, and becomes public.' It's a bold vision in an industry littered with failed interventions and pilots that collapsed under the weight of poor implementation or vanished when donor funding dried up. But the Movement Health Foundation insists that local partnership, government integration, and community buy-in are non-negotiable. The work in Peru, for example, is embedded within national health policy timelines and budget cycles. In South Africa, the Foundation's collaboration with local institutions is explicit, not adjacent. This is how institutions gain roots—not through speed, but through alignment. The numbers should make us uncomfortable. In 2021, South Africa recorded 356.86 DALYs per 100,000 women for breast cancer—a steep increase from 196.28 in 1990. DALYs measure years of life lost not just from death, but from living with disease. These are years spent in waiting rooms, in silence, in systems that never called your name. Peru fares no better. In rural areas, Indigenous and Afroperuvian women often learn about cancer from other patients, not their doctors. The clinics are centralised, the health literacy campaigns are underfunded, and the result is predictable: women show up too late, and leave too soon. We are not talking about rare conditions. We are talking about preventable diseases with known interventions. The delay is not technical. It is the result of fragile policies and outdated processes, systems that have failed to evolve with the needs of those they serve. A woman in rural South Africa still needs to travel hours to reach care. A woman in northern Peru still needs three separate visits to complete a screening, colposcopy, and treatment. If she misses one, the clock resets. This is not a coincidence. It is a reflection of design—of systems built to be good enough for some, but not for all. And yet, that design is not immutable. It can be rewritten. The Movement Health Foundation is trying to write a different script. One where prevention is not a privilege, where follow-up is not optional, and where a diagnosis is not the beginning of the end. If global health is to mean anything, it must begin with the least protected. Not just in rhetoric, but in protocol. Not just in fundraising, but in follow-through. And so the question remains, not for them, but for us: what does it say about our global priorities when a woman needs to survive a system before she can survive a disease? 'This is not about awareness,' Bogi Eliasen has said. 'This is about consequence.' He's right. The numbers are not just statistics. They are verdicts. And verdicts, if left unchallenged, become legacies. Let's not allow that. By: Lena Whitmere