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Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System --------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Oct 2006 Title: About 60 000 gold miners to participate TB research --------------------------------------------------------------- By Silindiwe Dube tel (012) 314-2359 About 60 000 gold miners are expected to participate in a programme to help prevent the spread of tuberculosis in South Africa's gold mining industry. This is because mines tend to experience high TB rates, due to the confined working conditions underground and the fact that miners live in the same hostels, allowing undetected cases of TB to spread unchecked. The research programme has been developed by the Aurum Institute for Health Research (AIHR), a US-based independent medical scientific organisation that researches epidemics and other diseases in developing countries. In this landmark study, the research institute has implemented InForm(TM) - Integrated Trial Management software for Electronic Data Capture (EDC). This project is backed by the South African Mine Health and Safety Council and operates as part of the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS-TB Epidemic (CREATE), which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The CREATE project was launched by the former South African President Nelson Mandela at the International AIDS Conference in July 2004. According to AIHR executive director Dave Clark a TB study of this magnitude was a first. The objective of the study is to compare the efficacy of nine months of TB preventive therapy using the TB drug isoniazid in addition to the standard TB control programme practice used by the gold mining industry, against the effectiveness of the standard control programme alone. The programme involves an initial baseline study that includes approximately 17 000 participants. Data is being collected from up to 100 participants per day from 20 mining sites for 12 months. The main study, which is expected to include 38 000 participants in the intervention arm, will be conducted over a two-year period at 20 primary mine locations and health centers. The studies will be conducted on a paperless basis, with all data being entered at remote sites. The project relies on InForm's "Unplugged" module, which supports wireless and offline data entry and remote location data management. Patient data collected at the 20 mining sites is being replicated daily with Aurum's servers in the Central Hosting Facility in Johannesburg. This comes as the country is grappling with a huge burden of the lung disease, and the recently discovered extreme drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) which has killed over 60 people in KwaZulu-Natal in the past few months. This is largely to patients not adhering to their treatment, causing the development of resistance to TB drugs in their bodies. This has since led to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang requesting a meeting with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and several health organisations in the country to help review national and regional strategies and action plans to also deal with the multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Meeting with health experts in Pretoria this week, the WHO said this strain posed specific threats and challenges in the fight against HIV and AIDS. TB is the most common opportunistic infection among people infected with the HI virus. The WHO has since urged pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to do research that would produce new tools to deal with TB. The meeting also looked at strengthening TB programmes management, laboratory services, surveillance, infection control, access to rational treatment and communication strategies. - BuaNews |
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