Image Source: SA News
Local – Nomzamo Vali, Project Manager at TB HIV Care, urges anyone with TB symptoms—persistent cough, weight loss, night sweats—to get tested immediately. She warns that delayed diagnosis and abandoning treatment endanger entire communities this World TB Day.
Vali outlined a troubling picture of TB adherence in South Africa, where significant numbers of diagnosed patients are still not accessing or completing their treatment.
She noted that both structural barriers, poverty, overcrowding, unemployment, and deep-rooted social stigma are driving people away from the healthcare system that could save their lives.
“The completion rate for TB treatment in the Western Cape is currently sitting at 81%, and in South Africa as a country, we’re sitting at 83%, meaning that there are people who are known to have TB that are roaming around and not on treatment.”
Poverty and Stigma: A Deadly Combination
Two key factors contribute to disengagement from care. Poverty forces impossible choices on patients, while fear of being socially judged keeps others from testing in the first place. Together, these pressures create a cycle in which people either cannot or will not access the services available to them.
For unemployed patients, the decision to seek treatment is not simply a health choice, it is a financial one, weighed against the most basic needs of survival.
“It’s a matter of choosing whether the last 20 rand I have if I’m unemployed, should I buy bread or should I go to the clinic?”
A persistent misconception linking TB to HIV continues to fuel stigma and discourage people from seeking care. Communities remain poorly informed about the distinction between the two conditions, and that ignorance carries real consequences for treatment uptake. Vali was clear that the two are entirely separate diseases with no causal relationship between them.
“TB does not progress to HIV. TB is a condition on its own, and it is one of the opportunistic infections that one can get when you are immunocompromised due to HIV.”
Treatment Works — If You Complete It
Despite the challenges, recovery is well within reach for patients who commit to the full course of treatment. The six-month regimen is short relative to many chronic conditions, yet misinformation continues to push people off treatment before it can do its work.
Vali said the barriers to completion are not medical but informational, and that education remains the most powerful tool available to healthcare providers and communities alike.
“TB treatment is only six months, and people don’t stay on treatment to complete it, and that is due to misinformation.”
Testing is free, treatment is available in communities and government facilities, and a full recovery is possible. Taking the theme of this year’s World TB Day to heart — yes, you and I can end TB — requires every South African to protect themselves, seek testing when symptomatic, and stand behind those in their communities living with the disease.
