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A mobile X-ray clinic. Picture: WC Health
One of the most striking findings of South Africa’s first national Tuberculosis (TB) Prevalence Survey was that of 234 people found to have TB, around 58% had abnormal chest X-rays without experiencing any TB symptoms.
The survey findings also confirmed what many experts suspected – that tens of thousands of people with TB in South Africa are simply never diagnosed. Based on the survey it was estimated that 390 000 people fell ill with TB in the country in 2018 – of which around 154 000 never received a diagnosis.
As we recently reported in Spotlight, one solution to this under-diagnosis problem is simply to test more people who are at high risk of falling ill with TB (for example people living with HIV or people who live in the same house as someone with TB) rather than only testing those who report having TB symptoms.