Page 92 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

to a suitable organisation for recycling. This initiative By understanding which aspects of TB control were
was started as to increase awareness among staff mostly affected, the South African Government
about recycling and on how to reduce plastic waste, will be able to protect the most vulnerable when
and to be advocates among their families and friends another health catastrophe occurs. People suffering
for recycling. We also asked students supervised from tuberculosis are often the most vulnerable, and
by staff to start collecting the plastic caps. For this any imbalance in their social structure and livelihood
years' World TB Day celebration, staff and students will affect their whole community. Our past research
visited a primary school to donate the bottle caps. is the foundation for protecting the most vulnerable
The students with great initiative and excitement when future disasters occur.
undertook to spell the word "TB" with the bottle
caps in the front of the SAMRC Pretoria Building.
With this initiative, the TB Platform combined
science and the severity of TB as a global health
challenge with protecting the environment, another
global challenge. With this activity, it was shown
how TB research which is often poorly understood
by the public can be repackaged as fun and thereby
brought to communities.

In celebration of 30 years of
democracy in South Africa

Over the past 30 years, the platform's research has
been used to improve the treatment and care of
people with tuberculosis and those who were co-
infected with HIV. Our research was included in
TB control policies of the South African National
Department of Health, and policies developed by TB Platform staff and students, formed the
the World Health Organization. Our scientists have TB acronym, using bottle tops.
also served on several international committees
and national fora and policy committees. Since
the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 the world has
seen how the pandemic devastated society, but
the pandemic also had far-reaching implications as
ripple effects for diseases such as tuberculosis. The
disruption of health services to direct all resources
towards COVID-19 control resulted in many
patients on tuberculosis treatment not getting the
care and treatment they required. Through our
research, we identified that many more patients
have died during the pandemic period, and fewer
children were diagnosed and hence missed out on
life-saving treatment. On TB Day, the TB Platform staff and post-
graduate students visited a primary school to
talk to learners, parents and teachers about TB.

90 SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2023-24