Implementer: Médecins Sans Frontières (Khayelitsha), Interactive Research and Development (Durban)

Site: Khayelitsha (township on the outskirts of Cape Town) and Durban

Nolitha Tsilana, a MSF nurse, delivers TB pills to a patient at Lizo Nobanda TB Care Centre in Khayelitsha township, Cape Town. 

South Africa has one of the highest TB incidence rates in the world (781 per 100,000 population). The country accounts for about 15% of the global burden of reported MDR-TB and about 73% of the burden in Africa. The diagnosis and management of drug resistant cases is also very costly for the government: they represent nearly half of the TB budget, with a treatment success rate of only 54% for MDR-TB.

South Africa also suffers from very high HIV-TB co-infection rates: 59% of TB patients also have HIV. Adult HIV prevalence was 18.9% in 2016.

In 2015, for the first time in South Africa, a patient with extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) was started on a combination of drugs including delamanid and bedaquiline.