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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Infectious drug-resistant TB a growing problem for SA employers and workers
23:41 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
10,700 multiple drug resistant TB cases detected annually in South Africa:
- South African police’s call centre workers are terrified of TB-infected colleagues, report Nashira Davids and Philani Nomembe report in the Sunday Times of Johannesburg
June 14 2009 - Dealing with drug-resistant tuberculosis in the office is proving to be a growing headache for South African employers and collegues who are being forced to work with them.
Dr Terry Berelowitz, meical director for Occupational Care South Africa — an occupational and workplace health service provider — was quoted in the Times of Johannesburg as saying that employers were in a state of “fear” and “confusion” over their legal and ethical responsibilities.
Multiple-drug resistant Tuberculosis is highly infectious: transmittable through airborne bacillii, the disease's increasing resistance to a large variety of drugs means that carriers remain infectious even if they are under treatment.
For background see the video youtube.com/watch?v=INdBNgOc5ls&feature=player_embedded
Emergency police call centre has six workers with Drug-resistant TB
“With the drastic increase in MDR and XDR-TB (multi and extensively drug-resistant TB) employers might find themselves in such situations sooner than they thought,” said Professor Keertan Dheda from the University of Cape Town.
Cape Town’s emergency 10111 police call centre is a case in point. Staff, who declined to be named , said they had been informed that colleagues had been diagnosed with TB and even multiple-drug-resistant TB.
- We work close together in an unventilated room:
- “Two staff members approached management to ask about TB in the workplace and they were told that six people have drug-resistant TB. Where does it put us? I have small children at home. We are all working in fear,” said one employee. “We are exhausted and stressed.. . our immune systems are compromised and we work close to each other in a room where we cannot open windows,” said another.
Police, who distributed information pamphets about TB as well as wet wipes in the call centre, said 'a committee was in place to ensure the safety of staff.' (The committee) is aware of two reported cases of members who are receiving or received treatment for TB since February,” said spokesman Captain Frederick van Wyk.
Employer 'may not discriminate against sick employee"...
According to the World Health Organisation, 10,700 MDR-TB cases are detected annually in South Africa — and the Western Cape has the highest clusters of TB, with the epicentre in the townships around Worcester.
Berelowitz said: “It is the employer’s obligation to create a safe workplace; the employer may not discriminate against the sick employee and the employee with an infectious disease should inform the employer.”
“The right to life might outweigh the right to privacy…’
Labour lawyer Peter Kantor said however that 'the right to life' might outweigh the' right to privacy of sick employees in high-risk circumstances'.“But proper consultation with all parties, limited disclosure and informed consent must be practised, along with measures to prevent ostracising or victimisation,” he said.
Labour Department spokesman Page Boikanyo said 'sick employees should disclose their status'. The Health Department’s Fidel Hadebe also said 'employers had to have an infection control plan and medical surveillance programme in high- risk workplaces. Where workers then contract a disease as a result of exposure in the workplace they will be entitled to medical assistance.”
Also see: AIDS-campaigner Thembi Ngubane dies of XDR-TB within week of diagnosis:
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