With support from World Health Organization and partners, South Africa has become a trailblazer in its bid to tackle this epidemic.
In recent years, South Africa has focused on scaling-up efforts to find people with undiagnosed TB and link them to care as swiftly as possible.
Combined with other programme interventions, this has led to a 56% reduction in the number of missing TB cases in the country – from an estimated 150 000 in 2019 to 66 000 in 2022.
South Africa has also been among the earliest adopters globally of a novel six-month all-oral regimen recommended by WHO for multi-drug resistant TB, an acute form of the disease that does not respond to standard TB treatment.