Johannesburg - The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has approved R500-million to treat TB in the country, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Tuesday.
“We are going to screen 150 000 inmates at the correctional services facilities and 500 000 mine workers in South Africa,” Motsoaledi said in Johannesburg.
Health teams would conduct a follow-up with families of people found to have TB.
“The 600 000 people who stay around the mines will also be screened.
“Without doing this job we won't know what we are dealing with,” he said.
Mine workers and prison inmates would receive verbal screening which included checking if people had chest pains, coughing or had lost weight.
They would also have tests done using the GeneXpert technology.
“Those that are found positive will start treatment,” Motsoaledi said.
He said 405 000 people in South Africa were on treatment for TB. - Sapa