Six miners from the Free State goldfields have been diagnosed with extreme drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), the provincial department of health said on Tuesday.
Spokesperson Gela Naude said the six confirmed XDR-TB patients were all from Gold Fields and Harmony mines at Welkom.
”They are currently being kept in isolation at Ernest Oppenheimer and St Helena Hospitals in Welkom.”
Naude said the patients would be transferred to the provincial isolation unit within the next week.
”The necessary preparations are being made at the unit for the patients to be quarantined properly.”
Naude said they were working closely with the national Department of Health in regard to the medication and treatment of the six patients.
The department was also ”in the process of engaging the mines to trace all people who were in close contact with these patients for testing”.
Naude emphasised that there was no need for the public to panic at this stage, as the situation was contained.
XDR-TB is defined as resistance to the two most potent anti-TB drugs, together with resistance to at least three of the six classes of reserve second-line drugs. — Sapa