The National Department of Health (DOH) has introduced an interactive public-facing tuberculosis(TB) dashboard, to keep track of SA’s progress towards the “End TB Campaign”.
The campaign has atarget of testing five million people by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
According to a statement issued by the DOH, SA has a high burden of TB. While incidence has been reduced, mortality remains high.
The TB dashboard is part of collaborative efforts between the DOH, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the National Health Laboratory Service(NHLS), as they aim to reduce TB incidence and mortality in SA by 2035.
Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi officially unveiled the dashboard at the NHLS head office in Johannesburg, describing it as a symbol of the department’s commitment to using digital innovation to enhance health equity.
“It is an investment in the power of data to save lives. Our political will to end TB is very strong and unwavering,” says Motsoaledi.
“To fight TB effectively, we must fight it with evidence and information. It’s only through reliable data that [we] can truly make decisions that save people’s lives. The dashboard gives all South Africans access to the same data that decision-makers use.”
The dashboard provides a comprehensive and interactive overview of TB data by province, district, age and sex, notes the statement.
The department used the lessons learned from the implementation of the electronic vaccination data system developed to manage the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Motsoaledi highlights that the dashboard offers a detailed view of testing trends over time, allowing users to monitor progress and identify gaps.
“It provides granular performance tracking across different administrative levels, including province and district. Crucially, the data is aggregated by age and sex to highlight who is being reached by testing efforts and to identify specific populations that may be underserved.”
Furthermore, the dashboard provides near real-time data on the department’s testing efforts across all nine provinces and districts, allowing stakeholders to monitor progress transparently.
The End TB Campaign has also revealed stark gender disparities in health-seeking behaviour, citing previous HIV testing campaigns that showed that 65% of those who tested were women, and that men constituted only 30% of those tested.
According to Motsoaledi, a key focus is developing a vaccine, with the hope that in three years, vaccine trials would be completed.
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