By BRIAN HATYOKA-
TUBERCULOSIS (TB), a disease caused by bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, mostly affects the lungs.
According to the World Health Organisation (WTO), TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV.
Despite being a preventable and curable disease, WHO says 1.5 million people die from TB each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer.
TB is spread through the air when people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit while a person needs to inhale only a few germs to become infected.
WHO states that most of the people who fall ill with TB live in low and middle-income countries, but TB is present all over the world.
TB is a major health concern globally and this is why the WHO adopted the End TB Strategy in 2014.
The 2018 Global TB Report says although Africa only has 14 per cent of the world population, it has the second highest incidence of global TB cases estimated at 25 per cent.
TB is among the challenges that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) faces in reaching its vision of deepening regional integration.
In 2018, 11 SADC member countries – including Zambia – were classified among the high TB burden countries globally.
Statistics indicate that one third of TB infections in SADC are linked to mining activities.
Additionally, recent studies estimate that three to seven per cent of miners are becoming ill with TB each year.
This situation has been exacerbated by poor working and living conditions related to the mining industry.
The mining industry also increases the risk of TB spreading around peri-mining communities and labour sending communities, including across borders.
Migration across country borders brings about yet another dimension to the disease burden, where miners receiving TB treatment encounter disruptions in continuum of care, putting their health and that of their families at risk.
Exposure to silica dust in the mining environment can lead to silicosis, a condition which is a known risk factor for development of TB disease.
On August 18, 2012, SADC Heads of State and Government signed a SADC Declaration to eliminate TB in the mining sector.
Zambia’s late President Michael Chilufya Sata was among the Heads of State and Government who signed the declaration in Mozambique.
The declaration indicated five priority areas in TB, HIV, silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases.
According to the declaration, the Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their commitment to the eventual elimination of TB and the improvement of practices and standards of environmental, health and safety in the mining sector of the region.
This was aimed at addressing TB in the mining sector in accordance with the provision of the SADC protocols on health and mining, among other agreements.
The Heads of State committed themselves to moving towards a vision of zero new infections, zero stigma and discrimination, and zero deaths resulting from TB, HIV, silicosis and other occupational respiratory diseases in the region.
Ending TB in the region requires a multi-sectoral collaborative response, involving ministries of Health; Labour and Mine; private sector (mining companies) and mine worker organisations such as labour unions, ex-mine worker associations and the media, among other keys stakeholders.
To this end, the Southern Africa Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM) with support from the Global Fund (GF) designed a multi-country response; the TB in the Mining Sector in
Southern Africa (TIMS) project as a catalytic response towards finding and linking missing TB cases.
The project aims at creating a regionally coordinated response to TB and related occupational respiratory diseases affecting mine workers, ex-miners, their families, and communities surrounding mining industries in Southern Africa.
This was guided by the Declaration on TB in the Mining Sector Protocol and the SADC TB Strategic Plan 2020 to 2024.
The project, which began in 2016, has since been implemented through two project phases, TIMS I and TIMS II.
As countries adopted the “End-TB strategy”, the Global Fund (GF) committed additional funding for continuation of the project, resulting into TIMS Phase III.
The Global Fund has allocated additional US$10.5 million to implement this phase, under a new principal pecipient which is the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA- HC).
ECSA – HC, a regional intergovernmental health organisation whose mandate is fostering regional cooperation in health, recently hosted a sensitisation workshop for media practitioners.
The workshop was meant to enhance informed reporting on TB related issues, including TB in the mining sector.
The workshop, which was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, provided a platform for journalists and other media professionals to enhance their health journalism skills and knowledge of TB and related issues in public health sector. Journalists from 11 SADC member countries namely Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and
Mozambique attended the training.
ECSA-HC Director General Yoshua Dambisya said the mining sector was contributing massively to the problem of TB and hence journalists in the SADC region should help to mitigate the burden of the disease by raising awareness.
Speaking when he officially opened the workshop, Prof Dambisya challenged journalists to sensitise the public on the burden of TB in the mining sector.
According to Prof Dambisya, TB is treatable and therefore journalists must provide updated information on the prevailing situation on TB so that different stakeholders make informed decisions.
Prof Dambisya said TB has remained one of the world’s greatest killers, especially in Southern Africa.
He said SADC countries have done a lot of work to mitigate TB but the media is not updated on the matter.
“If a tree falls down in the forest and the media has heard or seen the act of the falling, has that tree fallen down? We want to work with the media to prevent TB in the region,” he said.
Doreen Sandra Sonani, a journalist from Malawi, said the media has a key role in the fight against major infectious diseases including TB.
Ms Sonani, who is Malawi Broadcasting Corporation principal editor, said the media is a frontline stakeholder in the fight against TB.
She said journalists can shape the TB agenda for public discussion through the agenda setting theory.
This theory says although the media may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, it tends to be very successful in telling people what to think about.
In this regard, the media can manipulate news room politics and place TB on top of the editor’s agenda.
Ms Sonani said the media can leverage TB to be one of the central issues for public interest.
She said the media has a massive role in raising awareness and communicating messages around TB fight and unearthing gaps in the management of the disease in the region.
The media’s focus on TB reporting can help ensure that TB remains high on the political agenda and that the right policies, governance structures and actions are put in place.
In addition, the media can encourage accountability across stakeholders implementing various programmes in the fight.
Ms Sonani urged journalists to maintain regular contact with stakeholders involved in TB fight and health projects in general.
She further challenged the media to establish health desks and networks at national and regional level for journalists interested in healthy issues.
Ms Sonani urged journalists to focus or target women and other vulnerable groups with TB coverage and information.
“Look out for people with unique stories especially those which aim at reducing stigma and negative stereotypes,” she said.
Ms Sonani challenged the journalists to avoid distortions and misleading reporting such as promotion of unverified drugs, or traditional healers or witch-doctors who claim to cure TB.
During the training, journalists were put into groups for the purpose of identifying challenges and solutions to TB reporting.
The journalists noted that most media stories on TB were tied to events such as World TB Day, seminars or conferences.
They said TB coverage is usually given less prominence.
Stories on TB usually rely on officials’ speeches, ribbon cutting ceremonies and statistical reporting without any in-depth analysis. Delegates called for more capacity building in the area of TB and health reporting at national and regional level.
On bureaucratic barriers in getting information, journalists urged SADC countries to improve in this area.
SADC Senior Programme Officer for TB and Communicable Disease Charles Sandy said the regional body wants to use media platforms to effectively contribute towards stigma reduction.
Dr Sandy said the media platforms will also be used to increase access to care and treatment as well as improve adherence and avail more resources.
He said initial progress and gains recorded in mitigating the burden of TB in SADC have been thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We need to regain momentum and accelerate efforts across all the TB response intervention areas,” he said.
Tanzania’s Ministry of Health representative Julius Mtemahanji said there is need to sustain a network of SADC journalists in the fight against TB.
Mr Mtemahanji, who is Advocacy, Communication, and Social Mobilisation coordinator at the National TB and Leprosy Programme under the Ministry of Health, said the media is key to assist SADC countries in creating awareness and reduce stigma on TB.
Brian Mutale Ng’andu, who made a presentation about TIMS III Development and Focus on behalf of the RCM secretariat based in South Africa, said the Global Fund is supporting SADC member countries to address the high burden of TB in mining sector and surrounding communities.
This is being done through the implementation of declaration on TB in the mining sector. Mr N’gandu said TIMS III, which runs from July 2021 to June 2024, focuses on strengthening coordination of TB care and prevention in the mining sector in Southern Africa while promoting sustainability through country grants and other funding mechanisms.
Zambia’s radio and television presenter Mwansa Lusumpa described the workshop as being informative.
By and large, journalists are key stakeholders in addressing the burden of TB in the mining sector of the SADC region.