DEREK Banda’s wasted body shakes as he coughs. For a moment, he struggles to speak before a very faint voice echoes from him, his face registering desperation.
BY NHAU MANGIRAZI
He used to be a robust man as confirmed by a picture framed against the wall in this dimly lit room of his house in Alaska Mine compound, which has been nicknamed the Dark City because of lack of electricity.
Banda, a widower, is looking after five grandchildren whose parents succumbed to HIV-related illnesses.
To compound his misery, Banda was diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB), following three weeks of persistent dry cough and sweating during the night.
“I started sweating during the night and had a persistent cough that made it difficult for me to sleep. In fact, my 14-year-old grandson thought I was about to die. I could not walk for a long distance because of breathing challenges. It was really tough for me,” explained Banda.
He said that besides his suspicion that he was suffering from another incurable disease, a former workmate encouraged him to be tested for TB.
“Although I am a renal patient, one of my friends asked me to get tested for TB. He assured me that TB can be treated,” Banda said.
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Banda, like many former mine workers, is living in abject poverty after losing his job as an underground miner at Mhangura Mine.
Three months into the treatment regime, he is showing signs of recovery and has become a living testimony that TB can be cured.
Banda recalls how his life took a downturn when he was transferred from Mhangura copper mine 20 years ago and settled at Alaska Mine, 15km west of Chinhoyi in 2000.
Soon after he was diagnosed of TB, Banda confessed that taking medication was deterred by lack of food, since he is unemployed.
“I am in dire need of food supplies since the tablets that I am taking demand a balanced diet,” Banda said.
For him and many others, Alaska mine smelting plant was the major source of employment, along with its sister mine – Shackleton – but the two have been idle following the shutdown in 2001.
TB thrives in poor socio-economic conditions, where people live in overcrowded homes, have poor nutrition, high rates of smoking and where other health conditions such as HIV and Aids are commonplace.
The risk factors for tuberculosis read like a summary of the living conditions of Alaska.
A former worker Joseph Phiri recalled that Mhangura Copper Mine had strong links for them.
“The mine closures brought a lot of unhappiness here, and at Shackleton mines. Nearly 100 men out of the 254 former mine workers retrenched in 2001 have already died at Alaska alone. The majority are terminally,” said Phiri, adding that the situation continues to deteriorate.
Former motor electrician and Alaska workers’ representative, Roger Mlotshwa, said many former miners are now destitute after being exposed to highly toxic chemicals in mines. “Some workers suffer from lung diseases such as pneumoconiosis,” he said.
Pneumococcus is an occupational lung and a restrictive lung disease caused by inhaling organic and inorganic dusts retained in the lungs.
Jobs associated with the disease include asbestos mining, fabric manufacturing, quarry mining, sandblasting and stone cutting.
According to SafAids media manual on TB and HIV TB transmission occurs indoors.
“An individual risk of exposure is determined by the concentration in contaminated air and length of time a person breathes that air. The risk is high when one has had close and prolonged indoor exposure with the affected person suffering from TB as it will affect approximately 10 and 15 people per year,” the manual in part read.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care has called on urgent need to put TB on the political agenda.
Presenting its findings to Parliament recently, the committee noted that TB among artisanal miners should be a top priority issue that needs to be addressed with the urgency it deserves. State must move in to fund treatment, the committee recommended.
The MPs described the 7% budget allocation towards TB as a mockery saying the disease was a public health threat.
In light of the increased TB risk in mining communities among other at risk population, the ministry supported by USaid’s Challenge TB and Global Fund, embarked on a TB targeted screening initiative by getting into communities at risk of infections as they sought to find all missing TB cases.
Funded to the tune of over $1 million, the programme has seen the ministry setting up mobile clinics in high risk communities.
According to the ministry, high risk communities include people living in mining areas, prisons, people living with HIV, diabetic, health care workers and the elderly; hence the approach has seen them getting into such communities.
International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) country director, Christopher Zishiri, said his organisation is carrying out targeted screening for active TB in communities that are at high risk including former mine workers and those in the mining sector through the targeted screening for active TB among high risk groups project. “These people are receiving free chest X-rays and consultations by a medical doctor. In addition, they are also being tested for HIV and diabetes mellitus which also increase their risk of developing TB,” he said.
He added that this year 18 prioritised districts from all the 10 provinces will be screened.
“To date former mine workers and those in the mining sector (both formal and informal) and other high risk communities from 13 districts namely Mazowe, Bindura, Gwanda, Umzingwane, Makonde, Chegutu, Mutasa, Shurugwi, Kwekwe, Bulawayo, Bubi, Nkayi and Matopos have been screened for TB and those diagnosed initiated on appropriate treatment at their nearest health facilities,” Zishiri said.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Zimbabwe is among the few countries battling 80 to 85% of the global TB, TB-HIV and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). The global body says TB is one of the world’s most deadly diseases, killing three people every minute.
In 2015, the prevalence of TB in the country was 292 cases per 100 000 populations. Every year, 9 million people develop TB, and 1,5 million die from the disease as it is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. WHO report in March 2017 say 10,4 million people fell ill with TB and 1,8 million died from the disease in 2015. Over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to WHO.
With the Health ministry and other stakeholders’ commitment to end TB by 2030, better strides have been made to eradicate TB with former mine workers like Banda being beneficiaries of the success story.
