Tuberculosis is one of South Africa’s biggest health challenges with 322,000 new cases diagnosed each year, about 3.4% of which have some form of drug-resistance.
The country has been able to innovate the way tools and medicines that work in the lab and in clinical trials are delivered to patients, said Yogan Pillay, South Africa’s deputy director-general for health. South Africa was among the first to roll out bedaquiline, a new medicine transforming TB care, and diagnostic tool Genexpert, which tests for the presence of TB as well as resistance to one of the main TB medicines, rifampicin.
In an interview with Devex, Pillay described the lessons that can be learned from its approaches to tackling TB and how they can be replicated in other problem areas such as noncommunicable diseases.
To read the full interview, click here.
Source: Devex