Traditional healers in KwaZulu Natal have been trained by the provincial Department of Health (DoH) to counsel, examine and test their patients impacted by HIV/AIDS and TB.

Cipla Medpro has sealed a deal to supply South Africans with a variety of vaccines, including BCG, which is administered to newly born infants to prevent tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of deaths in South Africa and that is why everyone is being encouraged to get screened.

“South Africa is faced with a dual HIV-TB epidemic where the high rate of HIV infection is fuelling the tuberculosis or ‘TB’ epidemic. In addition to this, increasing numbers of people are becoming infected with drug-resistant TB strains,” says Dr Bavesh Kana Head of the Wits University node of the DST/DRF Centre of Excellence for Biomedical TB Research.