Criminal medical neglect by ANC-regime: Only 630 of the 6,200 diagnosed XDR-TB patients in South Africa were actually treated in a medical faciity in 2012 -- due to a lack of treatment facilities. (*NOTE: SA 's large chain of TB-hospitals, built during the apartheid-years with private donated funds, very effectively kept down the TB rate in South Africa. However these hospitals were mostly closed down by former president Thabo Mbeki who claimed 'SA did not have a TB problem' and he also diverted the privately donated funds from the SANTA group 'for use in other parts of the health sector).
This shock-fact emerges from a report about South African doctor Thato Mosidi, who contracted the nearly incurable and highly infectious extensively-drug-resistant Tuberculosis from a patient last year. She was interviewed about her experience.
March 24 2014 - " It took one cough and a sputter to change the life of a West Rand doctor after she contracted extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) at Johannesburg's Lerato Hospital. Now, her choice to be part of a clinical access programme aimed at introducing a new XDR-TB treatment in the country could help pave the way for thousands of XDR-TB patients to get better faster. "I woke up one morning and I was getting ready to go to work like every other normal person," remembers Dr Thato Mosidi. "I coughed into the basin and I coughed up some blood." The sight of blood in the basin was enough to send her straight to the doctor."It was literally only one cough," she tells Health-e. "One cough and I was ready to rush and get tested and get treatment." Ordinary TB is usually treatable with a six-month course of drugs -- however drug-resistant strains often require more drugs for longer and take up to two years to treat. Mosidi's doctor tested her sputum samples for drug resistance. While this kind of testing is available in the public sector, Mosidi benefited from what was likely a faster turn around in results by going through her medical aid. She remembers the exact moment her doctor called to tell her she had Extensively-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB) -- which is resistant to not only common anti-TB drugs but also to most of the 'second-line medicines" available. "I started crying right then and there - same time - and I was in the middle of a mall," she says. She said: "It's any mother's nightmare to even imagine that you could give your little child something so serious"
Only 630 of the diagnosed 6,200 XDR-TB cases in 2012 were actually treated...
The article continues:
-- In 2012, South Africa 'officially' diagnosed about 6,200 XDR-TB cases but only 11%of these patients were treated due to limited space. (*editor's note: due to limited space at treatment facilities, with South Africa's previous president Thabo Mbeki closing down the majority of well-run TB -hospitals, claiming that 'TB was not a problem). The reporter had contact Dr Norbert Ndjeka, head of the Dept of Health's dvision on HIV, TB and Drug-resistant TB. He was quoted as saying that only eleven percent of the diagnosed 6,200 patients with XDR-TB were actually treated in 2012 due to limited hospital space. The infected South African doctor Mosidi said that what started as shock quickly evolved into terror - and then concern for her three-year-old daughter. With weaker immune systems, children, the elderly and people living with HIV are very susceptible to contracting TB if they live with someone who has it. "I think it's any mother's nightmare to even imagine that you could give your little child something so serious," she adds. "I was more scared about that then I was about myself being sick."Mosidi was admitted for a short time into the East Rand's Sizwe Tropical Diseases Hospital. In the weekend between being diagnosed and admitted, she says she made sure all the windows in the house were open to prevent infecting her husband. If guests came, they sat outside in the yard to chat and her daughter spent the weekend at her mother's house. Her daughter never contracted XDR-TB.
"I thought for myself that it would be a great opportunity to lend a hand in trying to improve the treatment, care for XDR-TB" Mosidi is now seven months into XDR-TB treatment. For the majority of her treatment, she has also been receiving a drug called bedaquiline -
http://allafrica.com/stories/201403241219.html
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Ex-president Thabo Mbeki closed most of the very effective, apartheid-era TB-prevention hospitals countrywide, saying they were not needed “since TB is not a problem in SA’ – and plundered the private TB-funds from the SA National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA).
The Fight Over the TB millions in South Africa
"In 2004, then-health minister Manto Msimang had stopped state-subsidies to the country's 22 specialist TB hospitals run by the SANTA fund - effectively closing them down on the orders of then-president Thabo Mbeki.
-- Special report by De Wet Potgieter
Millions of rands intended to fight the scourge of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa were siphoned off to fund lavish lifestyles of a group of “old guard” executives from the apartheid era.
The shocking allegations of trust fund mismanagement have been exposed in a recent bitter tug-of-war for control of the South African National Tuberculosis Association’s (Santa) pot of gold.
At the centre of the fight for control over Santa are three secret trust funds totalling R1.65bn – the TB Prevention Trust of R14m, the Viva Trust of R36m and the well-known Christmas Stamp Fund of R1.6bn.
Since last year, two opposing groups of people, each claiming to be legitimate representatives of Santa, have been locked in fierce court battles in Gauteng’s South High Court for control of the association.
The one, Santa’s management committee (Manco), is headed by Dr Sateesh Isseri and the other, the so-called “steering committee” which in court papers is dubbed as the “rogue Santa”, is headed by the organisation’s former national treasurer, Ian Pierce.
Reacting strongly to the bitter feud, Santa’s national chairperson, Sipho Tanana, said the sooner the alleged fraudulent financial affairs were exposed the better.
Isseri, the CEO of Santa, told The New Age on Tuesday that a declaratory court application would be brought in the same high court later this month to show that Santa was an organisation made up of branches and had a constitution that effectively controlled the association.
“Santa’s constitution allows for only a management committee (Manco) and not a steering committee,” he said.
In an emailed statement released on Monday on behalf of the “rogue Santa”, it was claimed that Isseri was simply intent on gaining control of Santa for his own financial gain.
“As a result of his activities, during which he persuaded members of Santa’s management committee of his good intentions and of the need to devolve control of Santa to him, he has systematically siphoned off more than R13m of Santa’s money into accounts operated by him for the benefit of his company, Primed, and has commandeered most of Santa’s vehicles,” the “rogue” Santa claimed.
According to Isseri, various fraudulent activities of members of the “rogue” Santa came to light.
An internal audit conducted last year showed that money was squandered on Santa’s Diners Club credit card accounts by not only office bearers at Santa but in one case the wife of one of them who had also allegedly abused a Santa credit card on a travelling spree.
According to the audit, in the six months from August 2010 to March last year, the former national chairman of Santa, Ian Anthony, spent R325000 on entertainment and travelling costs. The former CEO, Morongwa Magongoa, spent R268 000 and a Peter Malubane, the community service manager R114 000. In the audit it emerged that the members of the “rogue Santa” were in fact also the members f the multimillion rand secret trust funds.
According to the minutes of a management meeting in October last year, Isseri confronted Magongoa about the existence of the trust funds when she tended her resignation “due to health reasons”.
“Not only that the ripple effect of negative vibes around my family is unbearable, I am a firm believer in health and wealth and to that effect I have to preserve my health,” Magongoa wrote in her letter of resignation.
The people who claimed they represent Santa would do whatever necessary to cover their tracks, Isseri said in his affidavit. This included falsifying documents and his possible assassination, Isseri said.
“I submit the fraud extends into tens of millions of rands. Should these parties obtain control of Santa, this will have a severely negative effect upon the treatment and care of TB patients and sufferers of HIV-Aids, as they will be more intent on covering their tracks.”
Santa, a nonprofit organisation (with funds generated by private donors) established in 1947, started experiencing financial woes when the then minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, in 2004 stopped all government subsidies of R105m a month for Santa’s 22 hospitals countrywide. Since then the association had to rely heavily on donor funds.
dewetp@thenewage.co.za
http://www.thenewage.co.za/39966-22-53-Fight_over_TB_millions
When ex-president Thabo Mbeki closed down funding for TB-prevention programmes he started a terrible chain of events...
March 24 2013 - Today is World Tuberculosis Day. So I thought I'd write a little history about Tuberculosis in South Africa. In 2001, ex-president Thabo Mbeki -- in his infinite medical wisdom -- decided to close down many of South Africa's excellent chain of specialist TB-hospitals. He also stopped government-funding of the SA National Tuberculosis Association which raised funds for these hospitals.
Within just a decade, SA moved from preventing TB very adequately before 1994 to spreading it throughout Southern Africa by 2005. During apartheid, the South African National Tuberculosis Association reported that its case load increased from 88,000 cases in 1985 to about 124,000 in 1990: but there was a high-cure rate: with 6,000 people dying on average each year in the early 1990s. In 1994, about 47,800 new cases were reported. By 2011, the world health organisation reported that SA admitted to 250,000 new TB cases each year. The ANC-regime 's anti-white propaganda now also claims that 'TB was introduced in South Africa by settlers." However this is historically inaccurate: the DNA record and the archeological records find evidence of TB in the ancient peoples all over the world, including throughout southern Africa and right up into Egypt.
After 1994, when migration patterns into South Africa became very much heavier: as Mbeki switched control of the borders from the defence force - which had medical units with infectious-control experts on call - to the far less well-equipped SA police. And the pre-1994 border-control screening for TB and other infectious diseases amongst foreign immigrants - which was routine for foreign workers during apartheid - was completely dropped.
Zuma also closes down TB-hospitals:
Now the country is foremost in the world with what is referred to as a high TB burden... And it's also one of four countries in the world where the most drug-resistant strain of Tuberculosis mankind has yet to wage war against is now also being identified. Mbeki's disastrous decision continues under the Zuma-cabinet: another three TB-hospitals in Gauteng were closed down 'to channel resources to where they are needed most'. The Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development closed down the Charles Hurwitz TB Hospital in Soweto, the Tshepong TB Hospital in Pretoria and the East Rand TB Hospital in Ekurhuleni last month. http://allafrica.com/stories/201010070580.html
http://allafrica.com/stories/201010070580.html
Decentralizing MDR-TB treatment by 2013: Nearly half of diagnosed drug-resistant TB cases are not started on treatment; and infected patients have to wait up to 2 months for admission, long distance of transportation for admission and follow up; Negative impact on social and economic status of the individual and family due to a long stay in hospital; Risk of spreading TB among other hospital patients due to inadequate implementation of infection control measures; Non-uniformity in current, sporadic efforts of decentralized management; Issues of refusal to admission and aggressive demand for early discharge; Poor survival rates of DR TB cases. Report by:
http://tac.org.za/sites/default/files/campaigns/file-uploads/Norbert%20Ndjeka_%20How%20far%20have%20we%20come%20in%20decentralising%20MDR-TB%20nationally.pdf
"The right of access to health or the right to die"? Nov 29th, 2007 by Pierre De Vos.
He writes: "The Daily Dispatch must not be much loved by Ms Nomsa Jajula, the Health MEC for the Eastern Cape. First, the newspaper exposed the dire problems at Frere Hospital, problems which was of course denied by Jajula and her bosses, Manto Tshabalala Msimang and Thabo Mbeki (who then nevertheless pumped millions of Rands into it the Hospital to rectify the non-existent problems). Now the newspaper is campaiging against the closure of the Temba TB Hospital in Grahamstown which was upgraded with Lottery money a few years ago after community intervention and through community participation It is unclear whether the Hospital is in fact earmarked for closure as part of the Eastern Cape Service Transformation Plan or not, because the Health Department is refusing to comment on the matter. However, if it closes down, TB patients in Grahamstown will have to travel 60 km to Port Alfred for treatment. In an editorial yesterday the Daily Dispatch quotes TB patient, Peggy Vaaltyn about the alleged closure: “We need treatment and we want to live. We rely on this hospital for our livelihood. Taking it away will kill us.”The secretive “Transformation Plan” is aimed at improving access to health care in the Province but closing the Hospital would seem to do the opposite. That is why a petition signed by the mayor, councilors, political parties, churches, clinics and district health officers was submitted to Bisho to protest the alleged closure – so far to no avail.
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/the-right-of-access-to-health-or-the-right-to-die/
HIV-AIDS in South Africa due to Mbeki legacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_South_Africa
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv03445/04lv04206/05lv04302/06lv04303/07lv04313.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-drug-resistant_tuberculosis
XDR-TB was first widely publicised following the report of an outbreak in South Africa in 2006.
53 patients in a rural hospital in Tugela Ferry were found to have XDR-TB of whom 52 died within 16 days.[11] The median survival from sputum specimen collection to death was only 16 days and that the majority of patients had never previously received treatment for tuberculosis suggesting that they had been newly infected by XDR-TB strains, and that resistance did not develop during treatment.[11]
This was the first epidemic for which the acronym XDR-TB was used, and although TB strains that fulfill the current definition have been identified retrospectively,[12][13] this was the largest group of linked cases ever found.
Since the initial report in September 2006, cases have now been reported in most provinces in South Africa by 2007. As of 16 March 2007, there were 314 cases reported, with 215 deaths.[14]
It is clear that the spread of this strain of TB is closely associated with a high prevalence of HIV and poor infection control; in other countries where XDR-TB strains have arisen, drug resistance has arisen from mismanagement of cases or poor patient compliance with drug treatment instead of being transmitted from person to person.[15] It is now clear that the problem is far more extensive.[16]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensively_drug-resistant_tuberculosis
http://www.westerncape.gov.za/directories/facilities/701 Tuberculosis hospitals in Western Cape.
http://nolstuijt.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/sas-huge-tb-infection-pool-targets-of-top-test-labs/
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