The Treatment Action Campaign will launch a campaign to help the Eastern Cape department of health find patients defaulting on their tuberculosis treatment.
This was decided at the organisation’s provincial council meeting at the weekend.
Treatment Action Campaign deputy chair Thembisile Nogampula said they were shifting their main focus from HIV-Aids to TB.
“We are going to ensure that medicine is available and we want to work with the department to find patients defaulting on their treatment,” he said.
According to the latest District Health Barometer statistics for Nelson Mandela Bay, published in 2018, the rate of TB patients defaulting on their treatment had been climbing steadily over the past few years.
Eastern Cape Aids Council chair Vuyisa Dayile said in December that the Nelson Mandela Bay metro had a very high rate of lost patients on treatment and a high rate of drugresistant TB (MDR and XDR).
At the time, he said 8,912 patients had defaulted on their treatment in the metro and they had lost track of them.
“We have already spoken to staff at provincial level and they are keen for us to help.
“So far, the officials at district level have been giving us a hard time.”
Nogampula called on the department of health to provide them with TB statistics in the Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman districts.
“They are so difficult about giving us those statistics.
“We need those to start off our work.
“We cannot compromise. “The burden of this disease is very high,” he said.