Pretoria - Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has called on Members of Parliament to undergo screening for Tuberculosis (TB) and to get their constituencies to do the same.
Speaking on Tuesday in Parliament, Minister Motsoaledi said MPs must be at the centre of challenges that face the citizens they represent.
“No other battle desperately requires the leadership, advocacy and guidance by Parliamentarians than the battle against TB,” he said.
He said on World TB Day in March, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a massive TB screening campaign because it is only through screening and testing that people with TB can be helped.
“In South Africa, we analysed our situation and found three groups who are particularly vulnerable to TB, which are people in correctional services (150 000), people working in the mines (500 000) -- especially gold mines given the high levels of silica dust, and people living in peri-mining communities,” he said.
The Minister said an HIV positive person’s chances of contracting TB increases threefold. If one has silicosis, the risk is six times greater and 18 times greater if a person has both HIV and silicosis.
“… If you have diabetes you are five times more likely to contract TB. Other vulnerable groups are pregnant women, children, people living in informal settlements and health workers who are daily exposed to infected people.
“We also analysed the 52 districts in the country and found that the highest prevalence is in Lejweleputswa in the Free State, Dr KK Kaunda in the North West, Waterberg in Limpopo, West Rand in Gauteng, Bojanala in North West, and Sekhukhune in Limpopo. We are screening using this priority list of people and districts,” said the Minister.
The Health Department uses digital x-ray machines and it has appointed nine inspectors for the mines. It uses mobile GeneXpert machines, which diagnose TB within 24 hours and counsellors in correctional services.
“In the correctional facilities we screen inmates on entry, during incarceration and on discharge. In the last six months we have done 517 000 screenings.
“In order to strengthen the TB programme in seven correctional facilities which carry 30% of all inmates, we have put in seven GeneXpert machines. We have also put in a digital x-ray machine in addition to the GeneXpert machine in Pollsmoor,” said the Minister.
In peri-mining communities, Minister Motsoaledi said the department has screened 600 000 community members.
“Our inspectors report that 90% of mines are now routinely screened for TB,” he said.
He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a World TB Report 2015 last week, which revealed that the world is still confronted with the challenges of combating TB.
“The Global TB Report estimates that 9.6 million people were infected with TB, with 1.5 million having died due to its devastation in 2014.
“The situation is worsened by the world's inability to find about three million of those infected with TB in order to provide them with life-saving drugs.
“This means that at present, of the nine million people that have TB, six million have been found and three million people don’t know that they have TB and are therefore not treated,” said the Minister.
He said not finding these people and not successfully treating them has resulted in a new and scarier forms of TB -- multiple drug resistant TB and extreme drug resistant TB.
Minister Motsoaledi said WHO has established a global target to eliminate TB, which aims to cut down to no more than 10 new TB infections per 100 000 population by 2035.
“At present we are at a staggering 250 per 100 000 population globally,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za
