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INLSA<\/p>\n
Martie van der Walt, the interim director of the Tuberculosis Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit at the Medical Research Council in Pretoria, shows how masks to prevent TB infection should be worn. \tPICTURE:GCINA NDWALANE<\/p>\n
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Twelve percent of staff tested at KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s biggest government-funded tuberculosis hospitals are infected with the disease because none of these facilities employ occupational health officers, say researchers. <\/p>\n
On the eve of the third TB conference at Durban\u2019s International Convention Centre yesterday, Martie van der Walt, the interim director of the Tuberculosis Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit at the Medical Research Council in Pretoria, revealed the findings, saying the rate of infection \u201cwas alarmingly high and only the tip of the problem\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is astonishing that none of these (workers\u2019 infections) was picked up during routine screening processes. We have always known that health-care workers were at risk of infection, but until now this baseline assessment was never available. We\u2019ve got the policies, but they\u2019re not being used,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The research reveals that only two of the four hospitals have full-time nurses who are trained in occupational and health safety issues, only one of those nurses has postgraduate training, and none of the hospitals has occupational and health safety officers. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll four occupational health and safety nurses said they felt they did not have the authority to implement changes to protect health-care workers in their hospitals,\u201d says the report. <\/p>\n
While the national Department of Health\u2019s Fidel Hadebe did not respond to e-mails or phone calls from The Mercury yesterday, van der Walt said the department was briefed earlier this month. \u201cOur next step is to brief the KZN provincial department,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Over 1 400 staff with occupational health and safety cards were used for the research at the Mangusi (Zululand), Merchiston (Port Shepstone), Doris Goodman (Ugu) and Gray\u2019s (Pietermaritzburg) hospitals, including nurses, administrative and support staff. <\/p>\n
In the report, 120 TB cases were identified, including 17 drug-resistant and 16 multi-drug resistant cases, and one extensively drug resistant case. Twenty-seven of those who had TB were also HIV-positive. <\/p>\n
The majority of TB cases were among nurses (over 40 percent), followed by 30 percent in support staff. \u201cNow we have to study in more detail where they\u2019re getting it from,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Alex Pym, from the UKZN-based KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB and HIV, said the research suggested the TB infection rate of staff contracting TB in these hospitals was higher than in the general population. \u201cIt would very be interesting to know how many staff are employed at those hospitals in total. <\/p>\n
\u201cOccupational health and safety needs to be improved, and, although it is difficult to know the rate of infection of nurses, they are at a higher risk. There also has to be better control of patient-to-patient and patient-to-nurse infections,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Michelle Connolly of the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA said she was not surprised by the findings. <\/p>\n
\u201cA new HR strategy document recently released by the national health department contains no directives on occupational health and safety or infection control. The research highlights the need for trade unions\u2026 to compel the employer to implement better infection control,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Martie van der Walt, the interim director of the Tuberculosis Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit at the Medical Research Council in Pretoria, shows how masks to prevent TB infection should be worn. PICTURE:GCINA NDWALANE Twelve percent of staff tested at KwaZulu-Natal\u2019s biggest government-funded tuberculosis hospitals are infected with the disease because none of these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-11418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}