The National Department of Health (NDoH) launched a mobile-friendly TB app at an event held at the Hilton Hotel Durban yesterday.
Research by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals that South Africans are getting infected with TB at a faster rate than any country worldwide, with the exception of Lesotho. With the third highest cases of TB in the world, after India and China, 500 000 South Africans suffer from active TB per year.
In developing countries, TB has increased demand for health services and a direct impact on the health workforce. This results in task shifting especially in rural settings. The essential support systems within NIMART (Nurse Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Therapy), including training, supervision and referral systems, may not be in place or functioning well enough. Without strong clinical decision support tools and monitoring this may pose challenges in terms of quality of care.
The TB app – an up-to-date clinical decision support tool for all cadres of healthcare treating TB, was a collaborative effort by Metropolitan Health’s HIV YourLife Programme and the TB Directorate at the NDoH to help mitigate the TB crisis in South Africa.
Speaking at the launch, Minister of Health, The Honourable Aaron Motsoaledi said that he was confident that the TB app would be well received and make a significant difference, “last year we launched another mobile-friendly application for clinical support in treating HIV/AIDS – the app was successful and because of that success, we know that there is a need for the TB app.” The HIV/AIDS app is the most used clinical support application in Africa, with over 19 000 downloads since its launch.
Siraaj Adams from Metropolitan Health says that the TB app shows how effective technology can be in the fight against health issues. “Presenting all the clinical treatment protocol guidelines in an organised and readily accessible format can help upscale TB treatment.”
The app contains children, adult and multi-drug-resistant TB guidelines and medicines information. It is able to calculate TB and Isoniazid Preventative therapy treatment dosages, treatment follow up dates, medicine stock outs and drug interactions. Healthcare providers can also report adverse drug reactions on the app.
This launch event took place as a part of the TB African summit, ahead of the World AIDS conference. In attendance were members of parliament, Honourable Elma Dienda (Namibia), Honourable Stephen Mule, Honourable Abera Buno Abula. Also present, was Yvonne Chaka Chaka who spoke and sang briefly.
The TB app is freely available for download from the IOS App Store and the Android Play Store.