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Organization Contact Information | |
| Name: | Treatment Action Campaign |
| Street 1: | 2nd Floor, Westminster House, 122 Longmarket Street |
| Street 2: | |
| City: | Cape Town |
| Province: | Western Cape |
| Post Code: | 8001 |
| Country: | South Africa |
| Phone: | +27 21 422 1700 |
| Organization Email: | info@tac.org.za |
| Web Site: | http://www.tac.org.za/contact |
| Other Online Presence: | |
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General Information | |
| Board Constituency: | Developing Country NGO |
| Is your organization legally registered in your country: | Yes |
| If yes, please enter your registration number: | |
| Organization Type - Primary: | Non-Governmental Organization |
| Organization Type - Secondary: | Community-Based Organization (CBO) |
| Organization Description: | |
| The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) was founded in December 1998 to campaign for access to AIDS treatment. It is widely acknowledged as one of the most important civil society organisations active on AIDS in the developing world. One of its most significant victories was the 2002 Constitutional Court ruling in which the South African government was ordered to provide anti-retroviral drugs to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies during birth. In the years following the judgment the TAC’s campaigns were instrumental in securing a universal government-provided AIDS treatment programme, which has since become the world’s largest. | |
| Do you know about the UNHLM declaration: | |
Specializations / Areas of Work | |
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Advocacy Research and Development |
Other Organization Information | |
| Total number of staff in your organization: | 100 + |
| Number of full-time staff who are directly involved with TB: | 11 - 25 |
| Number of part-time staff who are directly involved with TB: | 11 - 25 |
| Number of volunteers who are directly involved with TB: | 6 - 10 |
| How did you hear about the Stop TB Partnership: | Other partners |
| If you were informed or referred by another partner of the Stop TB Partnership please tell us who: | |
| Why do you wish join the Stop TB Partnership: | Network with other partners |
| Are you a member of a Stop TB national partnership: | No |
| Are you in contact with your national TB programme: | Yes |
| Please tell us how your organization is contributing to your country's national TB control plan: | |
| Today the TAC continues to represent users of the public healthcare system in South Africa, and to campaign and litigate on critical issues related to the quality of and access to healthcare. The organisation currently has over 8,000 members and a network of 182 branches and provincial offices in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. Members elect the leadership of the organisation, which ensures accountability and that the TAC’s policies reflect the realities on the ground. Members receive basic training in the science of HIV, TB and related conditions, and about their rights in the healthcare system. Through its branches and members the TAC monitors thousands of clinics and hospitals. Its members are the people who need the public health system to work, so they are the first to notice when it doesn’t. In addition to the large national campaigns, the local activism of the TAC’s members is the true life-blood of the organisation. By organising locally, our members demand accountability and quality healthcare services where the services are actually delivered. | |
Geographical Reach | |
| Which country is your headquarters located in: | South Africa |
| Which countries do you do operate in: (This includes countries you are conducting activities in) |
South Africa |
Contribution | |
| Please tell us how your organization will contribute to the Global Plan to Stop TB by briefly describing its involvement in any of the areas of work listed below: | |
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TB Care Delivery: On World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, on the 24th March 2015, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and partner organizations organized a big march named “We die of TB”. At this march, TAC asked Members of Parliament to get tested for TB during the march as a way of demonstrating solidarity and support for the urgency needed in tackling TB in the country. A mobile screening unit was provided outside Parliament by the Desmond Tutu TB Centre. This was one of several advocacy campaigns aimed at increasing the efforts to tackle TB in the country. Though estimates vary widely, TB likely kills between 80,000 and 120,000 people in South Africa every year. In our view the ongoing TB emergency requires involvement from all spheres of government and society. Drug-Resistant TB: Rates of DR-TB are alarming and continue unabated in South Africa. Many people with DR-TB are never diagnosed, others are diagnosed but cannot access treatment and care, of those who do access care, less than 50% survive the disease. According to the TAC’s analysis the decentralisation of DR-TB care is a key step in bringing DR-TB treatment to the people by taking screening, treatment and care closer to where people live and not hospitalising people for longer than necessary. The TAC’aims to ensure better implementation of this policy through monitoring on the ground and holding accountable those responsible for implementation where implementation is failing. TB-HIV: While we have realized massive success in getting universal access to HIV treatment in South Africa, TB treatment remains a challenge. The country continue to have a massive burden of TB with more than 70% of this TB being in people living with HIV. The TAC has been advocating for and monitoring the integration of HIV/ART and TB treatment. There is still a lot of work needing to be done in this regard as challenges at various levels continue to hamper the complete integration of HIV-TB treatment on the ground. Laboratory Strengthening: The National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is vital to our health system. It conducts virtually all diagnostics for the public health system. This also includes HIV viral loads and CD4 counts and TB diagnosis, including culture, resistance tests and TB microscopy.Funding constraints have already begun to impact the NHLS’s ability to provide quality and rapid diagnostic services.The deterioration or collapse of the NHLS will severely harm South Africa’s health public health system and our health outcomes. The TAC is therefore advocating for the problems within the NHLS to be addressed to ensure a functional public health laboratory system to support the health care system. New TB Drugs: TAC has been campaigning for increased access to delaminid to DR-TB patients in South Africa and a price reduction for linezoid to make it more affordable to those who need it most. In this regard, TAC has also been massively involved in a Fix the patent laws campaign in South Africa- a campaign aimed at reforming South Africa's patent laws.in order to strike an appropriate balance between the need to access affordable medicines and the need for investment in pharmaceutical research. The campaign is in line with South Africa’s international obligations under the TRIPS agreement read with the 2001 Doha Declaration on Public Health. |
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Declaration | |
| Declaration of interests: I declare that there is no known conflict of interest. | |
| Application date: | June 22, 2015 |
| Last updated: | July 22, 2015 |