NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 312
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 22 June 2012
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 18)
Mr Z Mlenzana (COPE-EC) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) Whether his department has a comprehensive register of the number of
people who have multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the
country; if not, why not; if so, what are the testing procedures for
MDR-TB;
(2) whether these tests are being conducted directly on suspected
patients or only on those who would have failed to respond to ordinary
TB treatment; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (a)
what is the total number of known registered sufferers of MDR-TB and
(b) what are the further relevant details;
(3) (a) how many cases does his department have on its records in respect
of the 8Â 000 cases of MDR-TB that were reported each year through the
National Health Services Laboratory and (b) for how long have these
records been collected;
(4) (a) what is his department doing to alert (i) the public and (ii)
those who would be sufferers of the dangers of the disease, (b) which
are the most affected areas in each province and (c) what are the
reasons in each case?
CW412E
REPLY:
1) Each facility treating MDR-TB patients keeps a manual register and an
electronic register (EDRWEB.NET). Data from these registers is
aggregated at national level by the TB Control and Management Cluster.
2) Tests are conducted on both individuals who are suspected of having
the condition and those that fail treatment for tuberculosis.
a) There were 10,085 diagnosed cases of MDR-TB in 2010;
b) The average cost of treating each MDR-TB patients is R24,000
(medication only) over 2 years, comprising kanamycin (sometimes
replaced by amikacin), moxifloxacin, terizidone, ethionamide and
pyrazinamide.
3) (a) Of the total diagnosed, 5 515 cases were enrolled into
treatment programmes provided by the Department of Health.
(b) The records have been kept since 2004.
4) (a) The Department of Health has the responsibility to educate
and provide information to South African citizens, including TB
patients, on TB through the media, posters, radio and television
Public Service Announcements (PSAs), door-to-door campaigns and
mass-based commemorative events such as those for TB and HIV and
AIDS. Linked to this is a communicationâs platform called Kick
TB and HIV which uses soccer balls (emblazoned with messages on
prevention and treatment of TB and HIV) distributed in schools
and recently, mines.
(b) The most affected provinces are Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape,
Gauteng and parts of the Western Cape.
(c) Areas with higher HIV sero-prevalence are more likely to have
higher TB infections and therefore more MDR-TB. Also, poverty,
poor living conditions (such as over-crowding) and proximity to
mines are factors behind high levels of TB infection
END.