The Western Cape's Department of Health is just days away from making a submission to the Cape Town High Court that could see TB patients who have absconded being legally forced to return to the Brooklyn Chest Hospital and continue treatment for the disease.
If the department is successful, it will have the right to dispatch police to bring patients back to hospital and will be able to enforce medical treatment.
Patients in state facilities are currently not obliged to receive treatment for life-threatening and contagious illnesses.
Health Department spokesperson Faiza Steyn confirmed on Tuesday that court papers and the department's submission would be ready "by this Friday".
The department's proposed legal action followed media reports that several Extremely Drug Resistant (XDR) TB patients had absconded from the Brooklyn Chest while they were still infected and receiving treatment.
One man had returned home to his wife and six young children and was photographed coughing into one hand while holding his two-year-old daughter in the other... Read More - Cape Times
If the department is successful, it will have the right to dispatch police to bring patients back to hospital and will be able to enforce medical treatment.
Patients in state facilities are currently not obliged to receive treatment for life-threatening and contagious illnesses.
Health Department spokesperson Faiza Steyn confirmed on Tuesday that court papers and the department's submission would be ready "by this Friday".
The department's proposed legal action followed media reports that several Extremely Drug Resistant (XDR) TB patients had absconded from the Brooklyn Chest while they were still infected and receiving treatment.
One man had returned home to his wife and six young children and was photographed coughing into one hand while holding his two-year-old daughter in the other... Read More - Cape Times
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