‘Malnutrition poses major setback in the fight against TB’

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Malnutrition pose a major setback in the fight against tuberculosis in South Africa. This, according to the director for HIV and TB delivery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Professor Yogan Pillay.

Prof. Pillay was a speaker at the four-day bi-annual 8th SA TB Conference in Durban. In attendance are policy makers, academics, researchers, government officials and members of civil society with the aim to reduce new TB infections and deaths by 2030.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) South Africa is amongst 30 countries, which contribute more than 87% of the global TB burden. In South Africa alone 148 people die daily due to tuberculosis.

But scientists and researchers believe this number can be reduced, if the country could make nutrition a priority for all – especially TB patients.

“Nutrition is like a vaccine. I think that nutrition can play a big role in decreasing the incident of TB in our country and if you live in overcrowded housing, if you don’t have enough food to eat you’re more susceptible to contracting and getting TB disease. And of course if you get the disease then you gonna be also able to spread it to other people. So by preventing we are both preventing people from getting sick and having to come to the hospital at the clinic and also dying,” Professor Pillay  elaborates.

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Pillay is also calling on the yet to be formed new government to consider merging the Department of Health and of Social Development.
He believes it could provide solutions to societal and health issues effectively.

“Department of Health and Social Development combined department at both the national and the provincial levels because then you can get a seamless comprehensive approach to health that combines the biomedical interventions; you know vaccines and the tablets together with the social interventions like provision of food and food parcels to poor people.”

High risk groups

The director for clinical trials at the Africa Health Research Institute, Professor Limakatso Lebina, says while the country has made strides to ensure that all people with TB have equitable access to high-quality diagnosis, treatment, care, and preventive therapy – more work needs to be done for the high risk groups.

The conference continues on Thursday with a number of sessions and plenary discussions aimed at finding solutions to ending TB.