Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, [email protected]
THE Ministry of Health and Child Care and its partners are rolling out health outreaches for small-scale artisanal miners in their places of operation to address growing concerns that the group has limited access to services due to the nature of their job.
Reports show that artisanal miners account for a majority of lost-to-follow-up HIV patients, sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs), Tuberculosis, Silicosis, and other diseases.
Speaking during one of the outreaches held in Gwanda, the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) project medical principal Dr Munyaradzi Sidakwa said the outreaches will help the country achieve health goals.
He said the miners are specialised groups whose healthcare needs should be met for the country to progress in treating and preventing diseases like HIV, Tuberculosis and Silicosis.
MSF is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.
“We have a programme that targets artisanal small-scale miners and the communities around them. The greatest challenge facing artisanal miners is that they live in places that are far away from the health facilities and it’s hard to reach the facilities so the programme tries to go to mining sites and give the service there and there. We try and give a service that is comprehensive and addresses most challenges that they face which are HIV, TB, Silicosis, STI, substance abuse and they also have a lot of mental health issues,” said Dr Sidakwa.
He said the uptake was overwhelming as the miners appreciated the effort to bring healthcare services closer to where they operate from.
“They are very grateful for our coming to them and the places they are. One of the main plea is for the services to be continued and expanded such that services are found all the time. We noted some main gaps in this particular group and partnered with the Ministry of Health to conduct outreaches nearer to where they operate.”
“We have noted that the loss of follow-up rate is high in this group in issues related to HIV and Aids. Most of the STIs came from this group and the main aim is how we can reach them more and ensure they are healthy people. As a country, we can reach our goals for Aids and eliminating TB and other diseases.”
A recent study shows that only a handful of artisanal miners sought healthcare services when sick.
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