Unsung heroes: TB healthcare workers
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday April 3, 2015 11:19
Healthcare workers tending to TB patients are among the worst exposed to the highly contagious disease, particularly in countries with poor health and safety systems.
According to Gaborone District Health Management Team head of preventative services, Martin Azama, healthcare workers are more exposed to the TB bacteria than the general public.
“Statistics show that 42 percent of TB transmissions are in healthcare facilities due to the fact that healthcare workers fail to identify and isolate patients,” he said at the recent TB Awareness Day for health workers. “In the Greater Gaborone area, more than a thousand cases of TB infections are registered every year.”
World Health Organisation National Programme TB Officer, Boingotlo Gasennelwe said billions of workers around the world are exposed to different hazards in their working environments.
“It is no different for healthcare workers who work with TB patients on a daily basis,” she said. “Healthcare workers spend more time in an area that might have infected people, than the general public.” She said healthcare workers need protection from these workplace hazards just as workers in the mining and construction sectors do.
“I applaud workers because they put their lives on the line whenever they help patients. “Their patients come first. They are often expected to sacrifice their own well-being for the sake of their patients.”
Gasennelwe said unsafe working conditions contribute to health/work attrition in many countries due work related illness. “I also advise HIV/AIDS patients to test for TB as statistics show that in HIV/AIDS hit countries, more than 60 percent of TB patients also have the virus,” she said.
Thena, a healthcare worker at the Mafitlhakgosi Clinic in Molepolole, knows first-hand the dangers of interacting with TB patients. “I encourage health workers to test for TB. This bacteria is curable.
“I also preventive services groups to put in place measures to protect the workers from the virus,” she said.