Anso Thom
Health-e News
DEPUTY President Kgalema Motlanthe visited Pollsmoor Prison yesterday for World TB Day and told inmates it was poignant to remember that Nelson Mandela had contracted TB while incarcerated at the Tokai prison.
Outlining government interventions to tackle TB in prisons, he said: “You are following in the footsteps of an icon, and that should give you some level of assurance and comfort.”
Motlanthe added that “we have travelled this (prison) route ourselves and we understand why things must change, and change for the better”.
The visit to what is arguably South Africa’s most overcrowded prison, with a high TB prevalence, was the focus of the government’s World TB Day events.
Motlanthe told a group of inmates – who posed a number of questions to a government delegation that also included Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Correctional Services Minister S’bu Ndebele – of the government’s plans to tackle the curable disease.
These included screening every inmate for TB, treating them upon diagnosis, improved cell ventilation, and an urgent focus on alleviating overcrowding.
Speaking exclusively to the Cape Times, Motlanthe said overcrowding was the biggest challenge, and an overhaul of the criminal justice system was needed. “We need to look at prevention and find ways to deter people from ending up in prisons in the first place... I believe that if, as a start, we treat home invasions and crime in people’s homes as the most serious offences, we will go a long way towards reducing the high levels of criminal offences.”
Inmates who later addressed Motlanthe spoke of a range of challenges, including poor nutrition, lack of exercise, drugs running out, poor access to doctors, and a lack of regular TB screening.
Motsoaledi announced new TB guidelines for prisons, which includes the rollout of the Gene Xpert machine, a rapid TB diagnostic tool which can make a diagnosis in two hours, rather than two weeks.
He said the goal was to interview every inmate, referring those with TB symptoms for sputum tests and X-rays.
Professor Robin Wood of the University of Cape Town has modelled how the conditions of detention at Pollsmoor affect TB transmission. Wood and colleagues showed that conditions in the prison are ideal for the spread of TB and result in transmission risks of a staggering 90 percent a year.
This means that if 100 people go into the prison for a year, 90 are likely to contract TB.
Some communal cells at Pollsmoor are at 200 percent occupancy, with between 40 and 60 men crowded into each unit for up to 23 hours. The cells are often filthy, and ventilation poor.