Staff from the School of Pharmacy engaging with students during World TB Day awareness day at UWC. Image: Sipokazi Fokazi

On most days, Freedom Square outside the School of Pharmacy at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a quiet retreat, where students unwind between lectures. But this week the leafy leisure spot and walkway came alive with purpose as pharmacy students transformed it into a vibrant hub of learning with educational games, quizzes, bright anatomical displays and posters declaring “Stop TB”, “Yes we can end TB”, as part of commemorating World TB Day on Tuesday.

Among the gazebos scattered across the green lawns, a small crowd of students gathered under a blue kiosk, listening attentively as Master of Clinical Pharmacy (MClinPharm) student Duran Thomas engaged them with quizzes that not only tested their basic knowledge of TB, but also unpacked barriers to treatment such as stigma, fear, and misinformation.

“TB is curable, but only if we take the treatment properly, and only if we stop treating those who have contracted it as though they’ve done something wrong. It’s stigma that helps TB spread, and that’s how we lose the fight,” he tells the group.

Duran Thomas. Image: Sipokazi Fokazi

For Thomas, starting important conversations about TB on campus, where future leaders are shaped, is where it all begins. “Students become adults, and adults become parents. If we can educate the younger generation, they can carry that knowledge into older generations, helping to filter out stigma through education and awareness,” he said.

Among the activities on the day was a station where students added their fingerprint to a tree canvas to symbolise the growing awareness of TB.

Dr Erika Kapp, a senior lecturer at the School of Pharmacy said TB was not only a health issue but also a social justice issue, linked to poverty, overcrowding, food insecurity and unequal access to care.The school of Pharmacy is uniquely positioned for this awareness campaign as it combines clinical practice and pharmaceutical science, placing professionals in a unique position to tackle TB through both patient care and research.

“For pharmacy students, TB is not only something they learn about in theory, but something they are likely to encounter in practice,” she said, noting that they are often among the first healthcare professionals approached by patients with early TB symptoms. “This places them in an important position to encourage early action, appropriate referral, treatment support and care without shame or delay.”

Read more about UWC’s TB research below:

Study 1: The treatment of drug-resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB) in children often involves powerful medicines that may cause adverse drug reactions (ADRs). These reactions need to be reported quickly so healthcare professionals can respond and ensure treatment remains safe. But very little is known about whether caregivers of young patients understand how or where to report these side effects. 

Research by a UWC Master of Clinical Pharmacy (MClinPharm) student,  Duran Thomas, conducted at Brooklyn Chest Hospital and explored caregivers’ awareness and experiences of ADRs in children receiving drug-resistant TB treatment, found that while more caregivers were not familiar with ADRs reporting, they recognised when medicines caused harm to their children.

Study 2: TB is the leading cause of death from infectious disease, killing about 54 000 people in South Africa in 2024. Spread through tiny droplets (aerosols), once inside the lungs the TB germ, known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), is taken up by immune cells called macrophages that usually destroy harmful microbes. But M.tb has developed ways to survive inside them, largely due to a special lipid found in its cell.

In new research, UWC Master of Science in Nanoscience (MSc Nanoscience) candidate Harrison Abrahams, under the supervision of Prof Admire Dube and Dr Ruben Cloete, is using computational techniques to model how specially designed nanoparticles could bind to this lipid. By targeting this protective component of the bacterial cell wall, the nanoparticles may offer a potential new way to weaken or eliminate the TB-causing bacteria.

Ndaedzo Matodzi at UWC’s Freedom Square on World TB Day. Image: Sipokazi Fokazi

Study 3: Tuberculosis remains one of the world’s most serious infectious diseases, highlighting the urgent need for new and more effective therapies. 

MSc Nanoscience student Ndaedzo Matodzi is exploring an unlikely ally in the fight against the disease: green tea. In the study, supervised by Prof Admire Dube from the Faculty of Natural Sciences, she is investigating the antibacterial properties of nanoparticles from green tea extract. The nanoparticles are being tested for their ability to stop the growth of the TB germ, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Scientists believe this approach could contribute to the development of new therapies, particularly as drug-resistant TB continues to spread globally.

Study 4: The growing number of drug-resistant TB cases has made this infectious disease increasingly difficult to treat, prompting scientists to search for new treatment strategies. UWC 

MSc Pharmaceutical Sciences student Athembile Centane is contributing to research exploring a new way to help the body fight TB.  Under the supervision of Prof Admire Dube and Dr Ephraim Maphasa, Centane is studying specially designed nanoparticles that could help the immune system better recognise and destroy the TB-causing bacteria. Nanoparticles show promise as a potential new approach to TB treatment by strengthening the body’s natural defence system.  

Study 5: Drug-resistant TB continues to pose a serious global health challenge, with its treatment often requiring patients to receive injections that have severe side effects.

A PhD candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences at UWC, Pamela Kadare, is working on a new approach that could make TB treatment more effective and easier for patients. Under the supervision of Prof Admire Dube, Prof Marique Aucamp, and Dr Mellisa Chikukwa, Kadare is developing inhalable nanoparticles designed to deliver TB drugs directly to infected cells in the lungs. By delivering the medication directly to the infected lung cells, the approach could potentially improve how well the treatment works while reducing some of the side effects linked to current therapies.