TB: Govt 'is criminally liable'
2007-03-12 12:27
Johannesburg - The government is criminally liable for failing to hospitalise extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) patients, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said on Monday.
Health spokesperson for the IFP Ruth Rabinowitz said the government had an obligation to provide isolation facilities in hospitals for patients whose illness may cause a threat to public health.
"Within weeks of the outbreak of the epidemic, the DG of health assured the health portfolio committee that such steps were in fact being taken and that it was permissible to forcibly detains patients who did not wish to be isolated," said Rabinowitz.
The first XDR-TB cases were identified in South Africa last year in KwaZulu-Natal.
Rabinowitz said patients who were diagnosed with XDR-TB were being left "high and dry, waiting for beds to become available in public hospitals" while their families, colleagues and carers were exposed and possibly spreading the disease.
She said that the deputy health minister should be immediately tasked with making the management of XDR-TB a government priority.
"Government is criminally liable for failing to act decisively to protect the public," she said.
Spokesperson for the department of health Charity Bhengu said the government had done a "great to effectively respond to the challenge of XDR-TB in line with the WHO recommendations and guidelines".
These included admitting all XDR-TB patients to units for multidrug-resistant TB for isolation.
Bhengu said protective masks were available in these units for staff and visitors.
Units are being renovated to further strengthen infection control measures and increase bed capacity to accommodate infected patients.
- SAPA