TB FREE

The project activities include:

• increasing TB awareness through advocacy and social mobilisation;
• building training capacity to train DOTS supporters;
• establishing fixed TB FREE centres and identifying community centres for TB training programmes in all nine provinces of South Africa;
• establishing mobile units attached to each TB FREE centre;
• implementing systems and infrastructure for management and monitoring of the project.

The project has established TB FREE Centres in each of the nine provinces of South Africa. The aim of the centres is to increase TB awareness and compliance which is achieved mainly through a focus on training DOTS supporters throughout South Africa. Each TB FREE centre is run by a project manager and has the facilities required to train DOTS supporters. The TB FREE centres are also being augmented by mobile units in order to reach affected populations in remote areas.

DOTS supporters are also being trained in community centres, as this, according to the organisers, allows the project to reach people in more remote areas. This in turn makes it possible to increase the number of DOTS supporters caring for TB patients and enables training to be organised in areas with higher TB rates while reducing the costs of transportation and accommodation.

TB FREE believes that the TB problem in South Africa can only be solved through effective education and awareness programmes. The project is therefore also involved in a number of public relations and communication campaigns that aim to mobilise patients and society to do something about the TB problem.


The project campaigns include:

• door-to-door campaigns where aprons and leaflets are distributed;
• taxi branding campaign aimed at increasing awareness of TB symptoms and encouraging people to visit their nearest clinics for a free TB test;
• TB FREE exhibitions at events; and
• walk-for-health campaigns aimed at mobilising communities to combat TB.

Health.

To help improve TB detection and treatment rates in the country, TB FREE promotes and advocates for the use of the DOTS strategy. DOTS has been identified by the organisation as one of the most cost-effective health strategies available for the treatment of TB, if the disease is detected early and the medications are taken over a period of six months without any interruption.

The organisers believe that:

• DOTS produces cure rates of up to 95% even in the economically poorest countries;
• DOTS prevents new infections by curing infectious patients;
• DOTS prevents the development of drug resistance by ensuring that the full course of treatment is followed;
• a six-month supply of drugs for treatment under the DOTS strategy costs as little as US$10 per patient in some parts of the world; and
• the World Bank has ranked the DOTS strategy as one of the "most cost-effective of all health interventions".

“Accounting for over 80% of all notifiable diseases, tuberculosis is a major public health problem in South Africa. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked South Africa ninth among the world’s 22 high-burden TB countries. According to Global Tuberculosis Control: WHO Report 2004, South Africa had nearly 250,000 TB cases in 2002, with an incidence rate of 558 cases per 100,000 population (up from 338 in 1998). The number of TB cases in South Africa is likely to further increase over the next few years due to HIV/AIDS.

TB FREE wants to help solve the problem of this contagious, yet controllable, disease in South Africa. This requires facilities and an infrastructure that support the education and treatment of all those affected by the disease. Not only patients, but also their families and society as a whole need to be educated about the disease and the best ways to cure it. Patients need a support network that ensures not only the availability of treatment, but also proper administration and compliance. Families need to know how they can protect themselves against TB and how to get help for their sick. And society must understand that controlling TB is a community-wide effort.”