GAUTENG has made significant strides in the fight against tuberculosis, the provincial health department has said.

GAUTENG has made significant strides in the fight against tuberculosis, the provincial health department has said.

The cure rate in the province currently stands at 79 percent, with 48659 patients on treatment recorded at the end of 2009.

The cure rate is expected to increase to 82 percent at the end of next year, said chief director of the Gauteng department of health and social development's HIV-Aids and TB programme Dr Dimakatso Moloi.

Moloi said the directly observed treatment short-course (Dots) system was responsible for the satisfactory cure rate.

The system uses volunteers employed by nongovernmental organisations to administer treatment to TB sufferers in their homes.

Moloi said this system had kept down the number of patients who default on treatment.

The default rate has decreased from nearly nine percent in 2004 to 5,4 percent currently, Moloi said.