Tanzania to tackle tuberculosis prevalence among miners

Tanzania on Monday unveiled new measures to tame airborne diseases including tuberculosis (TB), a top public health concern that has especially plagued the country's miners.

Ummy Mwalimu, Tanzania's Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, said the country has nearly 200,000 people on the record of having the disease, but only 62,000 are on treatment.

Addressing MPs in the country's capital Dodoma, the minister called on the public to help spread knowledge of the diseases, urging people with signs to seek immediate check up.

Mwalimu said the Tanzanian government was aware of the diseases, mostly in the mining areas, citing some measures as public awareness campaigns in such areas

"Our experts will be dispatched into the highly affected areas like mining to sensitize miners and the general public on how to become free from the airborne diseases," she said.

She further said that rates of tuberculosis (TB) among miners in Africa are approximately 5-6 times higher than in the general population.

An estimated 15 million artisanal miners worldwide, many times more than are employed in formal sector mines, are working without any dust control measures.

In sub-Saharan Africa, mining communities are experiencing an epidemic of TB due to the combination of silica exposures and higher background rates of people with HIV. Globally, more than 3 billion U.S. dollars a year is spent on diagnosing and treating TB. Endit