Heywood accused the State of ignoring its duties in relation to TB as it had done with HIV, disregarding various signs such as plummeting life expectancy and high death rates that TB was reaching endemic proportions.

Heywood shared letters that were sent to him in his capacity as deputy chairperson of the South African National AIDS Council in which health workers spoke of their frustration and anger at the lack of action on the part of government, despite several attempt to raise the high incidence of TB in their communities.

‘€œIf I report problems to the Department of Health, even in a constructive way, the whole thing turns into a witch hunt and achieves nothing positive,’€ one health worker told Heywood.

‘€œPeople feel that the crisis of TB has been met with political indifference. There is a huge gap between rhetoric and lack of action,’€ said Heywood, who shared statistics going as far back as 1999, indicating that the TB epidemic was increasing at a staggering rate.

‘€œI had a frank discussion as far back as 2002 with the then director general of health Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba and Dr Nono Simelela in which they briefed me on multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB tipping to epidemic proportions,’€ said Heywood.

Heywood also questioned the State’€™s policy to isolate MDR and extensively-drug resistant (XDR) TB patients. ‘€œWe need to ask why people feel the need to escape from a hospital. Why is there barbed wire and guards? We need to ask whether we are limiting human rights in a way which is dignified as there is no legal basis for incarceration,’€ he said.

The conference has also heard of high levels of infection of workers at health facilities with TB as well as the drug resistant forms. ‘€œSurely it is not the most difficult thing in the world to implement infection control, it needs to be one of the emergency measures,’€ Heywood said to applause from the more than 1 000 delegates.

Speaking from the audience, Director-General for Health Thami Mseleku faced howls from the delegates when he accused Heywood of ‘€œjust using an old HIV presentation and changing the words’€.

He claimed human rights didn’€™t work in reality and that they had ‘€œmulled over’€ the decision to isolate drug resistant TB patients.

‘€œThese debates are yesterday’€™s debates,’€ he said.

Heywood’€™s more measured retort was that Mseleku did clearly not think the State’€™s response to TB was not without serious problems and that his responsibility was to the Constitution and not the Minister of Health.

‘€œHe holds a position on which the lives of millions depend and I hope the next DG and the next government will be more humane in its approach to health in this country,’€ Heywood said to raucous applause. ‘€“ health-e news service