Mass testing focus on mines, prisons

THE INCIDENCE of tuberculosis in mines and prisons is set to receive special attention as a countrywide screening programme is being launched by the government today to mark World TB Day.

Joe Maila, spokesman for Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, said the minister and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa would launch the programme – which will test every miner and prisoner in the country – in the gold-mining town of Orkney in North West.

Last year, Motsoaledi said that as part of reducing TB mortality, mines and jails, which were the breeding ground for the country’s biggest killer disease, would receive a special focus from the government.

About 1 500 miners, particularly in gold mines, die every year. Motsoaledi said if TB were a snake, its head would be in the mines and its body and tail across the continent, particularly in southern Africa.

In the programme, overseen by the SA National Aids Council, more than 150 000 prisoners, 500 000 miners and 12 million school-going children would be screened using the new diagnostic tool, GeneXpert.

About R500 million from the Global Fund would allow most miners to be screened, including foreigners. The programme was set to be the biggest the country had seen.

Meanwhile, Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo and Transport MEC Donald Grant launched a bid yesterday to take the TB fight “back to the basics”.

The Open Windows Campaign, launched at Cape Town Station, is aimed at getting public transport users to create adequate ventilation to help prevent the spread of TB.

There were about 629 new TB cases per 100 000 people in the Western Cape last year, and the province had successfully treated about 87 percent of cases, said Mbombo. – Sipokazi Fokazi