Moin zusammen.
Govt steps up drive to avert spread of extreme TB
Doctors say the XDR and MDR patient figures are increasing dramatically.
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/health/0,2172,165531,00.html
XDR-TB patients 'malnourished' because SA staff eats their food - shock report by dietician
March 8 2008 - CAPE TOWN, South Africa. Shortly after local dietician Annchen Weidemann's shock-report on the very poor nutrition and the abuse by staffers of extremely-drug-resistant Tuberculosis patients at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital near Cape Town, the Treatment Action Campaign has been putting pressure on provincial health minister Pierre Uys to improve the situation. They want Uys to punish the staffers who were, according to Weidemann, 'withholding meals and fresh fruit' from their desperately ill patients...
The TAC picketed the hospital again on Thursday March 6 2008 just to back up their demand that matters had to improve drastically for these desperately-ill XDR-TB patients at the hospital.
Dietician Annchen Weidemann began her investigation at the state-run TB hospital on November 7 last year -- focussing on those wards occupied by Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-Tuberculosis) patients.
She was shocked to find that staff prepared meals without consulting recipes and often did not add cheese, milk or eggs to dishes to boost their nutritional levels.
Staff also were seen eating the fresh fruit that was actually intended for the XDR-TB patients -- and she also observed how staffers were withholding meals from these patients allegedly 'as punishment'...
Some staffers were also accused of scolding and insulting patients.
Weidemann's report was attached to court papers that four XDR-Tuberculosis patients had filed in a Cape High Court case to try and force their release due to this maltreatment.
These four patients, who may not be identified, then absconded from the hospital in September.
This prompted Health MEC Pierre Uys to apply for a court order compelling the patients to return and to remain in hospital until their treatment was complete.
On Thursday, Health department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said that following Weidemann's report, the hospital had 'changed its meat supplier and introduced a \"more varied menu specifically designed to meet the patients' dietary requirements\".
A probe also was launched into Weidemann's personally-registered observations about abusive nursing and cleaning staff.
Disciplinary action was due \"pending the outcome of the investigation\", said Steyn.
Krish Vallabhjee, a senior director in the Health department, said that extra funds had also been provided to renovate the hospital's kitchen.
Some 58 additional staff members had also been appointed and would focus specifically on TB hospitals in the province, said Vallabhjee.
All of this may have seemed too little, too late for TAC members who protested outside the Health department's Cape Town offices on Thursday.
TAC spokesman Mandla Majola told the gathering that the TAC's responsibility was \"to mobilise our communities\" and \"to save lives\".
Majola said Uys should listen to community leaders, activists and NGOs working in the province. He should develop a district plan that would deal with the deadly combination of Tuberculosis-and Aids-epidemics ravaging their communities.
\"Pierre Uys, get your act together or face the consequences,\" said Majola, to cheering and ululating from the small but vocal crowd. Majola said if there were no changes to department policy, the TAC would return \"in larger numbers\".
The TAC handed a memorandum to a representative from Uys's department. Uys could not accept the memorandum because he was in a meeting.
Natasha Joseph, the SA journalist who reported the above, can be contacted via her email: Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!
Source URL:
http://www.tac.org.za
Gruß, Michael
