A 47-year-old man has died of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in the Eastern Cape, bringing the number of deaths to 14 since November, the provincial health department said on Thursday.
Departmental spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said the patient died at the Jose Pearson TB hospital in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday. ”This brings the number [of XDR-TB deaths] now to 14,” he said.
XDR-TB was first identified in South Africa last year, emerging first in KwaZulu-Natal.
Kupelo said all the isolation wards at the hospitals were running smoothly and there was no risk of the disease spreading.
”I need to emphasise that the fact that the numbers are going up does not suggest that the situation is getting out of hand. The situation remains under control and all the necessary precautions have been taken,” he said.
Meanwhile, the department has rejected reports by employees at Jose Pearson hospital that XDR-TB patients were walking freely around the hospital and that two nurses had died after contracting TB while on duty.
Kupelo said senior officials of the department visited the hospital’s three isolation wards on Wednesday and found that ”none of these reported fabrications can be confirmed”.
”One of the nurses died from natural causes not related to TB and the other one was diagnosed with TB in 1999 before joining the hospital,” he said.
He said stakeholders like the Democratic Nurses’ Organisation of South Africa had purported to confirm the ”faceless” reports. He urged such stakeholders to engage with the department on health concerns instead of ”shouting from the rooftops and grossly exaggerating facts in the process”.
The provincial health department has approved funding of R180-million for the current financial year, which will go to the Nelson Mandela, Amathole and OR Tambo district municipalities.
”These areas were identified as recording a high number of ordinary TB cases in the province,” Kupelo said.
On March 24, acting health minister Jeff Radebe announced R3,6-million in funding for infection-control measures in all health facilities across the country. — Sapa