Minister of Health
(1)(a) What funds has her Department allocated to Targeted Universal Testing for TB (TUTT) in
(i) 2023, (ii) 2024,
(iii) 2025 and (iv) 2026 and
(b) in which districts will TUTT be rolled out;
(2)whether the tests that are used for TUTT are able to detect asymptomatic cases of TB; if so,
what are the relevant details?
1. The funding sources for TUTT include
- Conditional Grant
- Global Fund
- TB Bid funds from National Treasury The Conditional Grant budget for the MTEF is:
- 2023-2024: R28 742 000
- 2024-2025: R30 774 000
- 2025-2026: R32 839 000
Additional funding has been allocated by the Global Fund for grant cycle ending 31 March 2025 to fund a total of R238 722 tests over the cycle
- Y2 budget: R24 175 235 (115 439 tests)
- Y3 budget: R25 817 926 (123 283 tests)
- Total budget: R 49 993 161
TB bid funds from Provincial Treasury for the Eliminating TB programme (TUTT) is R60 175 000 over the MTEF.
TUTT is planned to be rolled out in a phased approach across all districts and sub-districts. TUTT implementation is planned for facilities across Metro Health Services, Rural Health Services and City of Cape Town sites from 01 May 2023 with CBS arm of TUTT being planned for phase in over the next 3-6 months as CHW’s are trained and capacitated to conduct sputum collection in the community.
2. Yes
GXP tests have a high sensitivity rate and can detect TB in asymptomatic individuals, depending on bacillary load. This includes the ability to detect TB bacilli in previously infected individuals. GXP has a limit of detection of 131 cfu/ml with GXP Ultra having a detection limit of 11,8 cfu/ml. The TUTT programme will have built in referral mechanisms to ensure asymptomatic clients who test positive are linked to a facility for clinical assessment before treatment is commenced.
