SADC summit adopts code on Tuberculosis

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Tuesday August 21, 2012 00:00

It is expected to ensure commitment by Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries to help TB affected miners, families and communities in the region. The Heads of States, including President Ian Khama, approved and signed the declaration, during the 32nd Summit of SADC Heads of States that was held in Maputo, Mozambique over the weekend. According to government spokesperson, Jeff Ramsay, the declaration was drafted in March by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Stop TB Partnership, mining unions and experts in the region while the region's ministers of health endorsed it in April.   The resolutions passed at the endorsement meeting included a call for a single database to track miners' employment and healthcare as they travel across the region; a request for SADC guidance on what activities are needed to eliminate TB among miners and how they should be implemented; and a request for more detailed analytic work on the economic impact of TB in the mining sector and the most effective solutions, according to the Stop TB Partnership website.

During the drafting of the declaration, Dr David Mametja, chief director of TB and Control Management at the South African Department of Health told a media workshop that as well as commitment from SADC countries, the declaration also hopes to harmonise policies dealing with TB issues in the region, as well as standardise referral systems between countries.

Southern Africa holds the global record for the most reported cases of TB, highest incidence and highest death rate from the disease, with the World Heath Organisation putting the deaths at 500,000.  Africa is the only region that is not on track to achieving the Millennium Development Goals' (MDG) target of a 50 percent decrease in TB deaths by 2015, according to the Stop TB Partnership. The mining sector, particularly gold mining, has been pinpointed as a breeding ground for TB caused by inhalation of silica dust, which causes silicosis.   Silicos is an incurable lung disease, which increases vulnerability to TB. TB is exacerbated by miners' vulnerability to HIV, which also increases vulnerability to TB.

The issue is further complicated by the migratory nature of work in the mining sector, with a fair number of workers in the South African gold mines migrant workers from countries such as Lesotho,Swaziland,Mozambique ,and to a small extent, Botswana.  A report on Temporary Labour Migration in Post-Apartheid SA states that there were 2,992 Batswana working in the South African gold mines in 2006, while 46,082 were from Lesotho, 46,707 from Mozambique and 7,124 from Swaziland in the same year. Because sick miners are sent back to their countries, it becomes difficult to track them and administer treatment which often leads to the miners infecting their families and communities with the disease.The migratory nature of the job also makes it cumbersome for retired miners to access their compensation.