Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients have again staged a mass breakout from Port Elizabeth’s TB hospital.
The Eastern Cape health department’s Sizwe Kupelo said on Sunday the department was looking for 21 patients from a group of 33 who had forced their way out of the Jose Pearson Hospital on Thursday.
Kupelo said a group of about 60 patients being held in isolation had intimidated gate guards at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. The next day, 25 patients with multidrug-resistant TB and eight with extensively drug-resistant TB managed to push past the guards.
On Sunday, 12 patients returned to the hospital, eight voluntarily and four as a result of a court order.
Kupelo said that the department was still searching for the other 21 patients, all believed to be staying with families in the Port Elizabeth area.
News reports in the past have said that TB patients lose their government social-welfare payments when they are hospitalised. — Sapa