We can be the generation that stamps out the preventable and curable disease of tuberculosis (TB).

This was the message of National Assembly Speaker Ms Baleka Mbete’s message at the “Our Night with the Stars: A Gala to Celebrate the TB Champions”, which the Stop TB Partnership and USAID, among others, organised. It was one of several events yesterday on the side-lines of the United Nations High Level Meeting on TB, taking place in New York.

“TB is the world’s leading infectious disease killer, although it can be prevented, treated and cured. However, TB’s pervasiveness persisted, under a cloak of silence and non-disclosure, making it difficult to properly prevent, treat and cure,” Ms Mbete observed.

“Such silence and non-disclosure could have robbed us of our first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela,” Ms Mbete remarked. She recalled that, in 1988, Madiba, while in prison, was diagnosed with early stage TB – at a time when HIV/AIDS was rampant in South Africa and worldwide. “He recalled later how his friends in prison, including Walter Sisulu, had been saddened by the news,” But, Ms Mbete, related, he said: ‘I underwent treatment and was completely cured after four months’.”

As a TB survivor, Madiba insisted in his 1997 World TB Day speech that: “TB patients who are taking their treatment can live and work safely in the community; and they need and deserve our support as they journey towards recovery. TB, like other epidemics knows no boundaries. All nations and communities need to join hands to fight the disease.”

Ms Mbete said she had related this reminiscence of Madiba to remind people of the success of worldwide efforts to turn around the life expectancy of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. “Concerted efforts on TB should yield even better outcomes for what is a curable disease. This year, as we commemorate the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, let us renew our resolve to put TB in its place,” Ms Mbete appealed.

Public representatives, she said, must play a leading and pioneering role to end the TB epidemic, including addressing socio-economic conditions. The South African Parliament had established a South African Chapter of the Global TB Caucus of Parliamentarians – a vehicle to galvanise legislators worldwide. Continental and global level efforts to end TB as a killer disease should involve reaching all people by closing the gap on TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention; transforming the TB response to be equitable, rights-based and people-centred; accelerating development of essential new tools to end TB and investing the necessary funds; and committing to decisive and accountable leadership, Ms Mbete said.