South Africa warns TB patients against selling infected sputum

Sep 15, 2009, 14:52 GMT

Johannesburg - South Africa's health department on Tuesday appealed to tuberculosis suffers not to sell their infected sputum to others, warning that TB patients do not, as some people think, automatically qualify for social grants.

The department was reacting to reports that some people were selling their TB-infected phlegm on the understanding that the buyer could take it to a hospital or clinic to collect a disability grant.

'The Department of Health would like to appeal to people who are involved in this unlawful and immoral practise to desist from doing so as this practice inherently distorts the real TB situation in the country and undermines efforts in the fight against the disease,' the department said in a statement.

In the past, people who had TB qualified for a disability grant but the department had stopped issuing such grants for TB patients 'based on the abuse of the policy.'

'As the policy stands at the moment, TB is not regarded as a disability - it is a curable disease,' the department said.

Only patients with drug-resistant strains of TB were eligible for a grant, depending on their circumstances, according to the statement.

South Africa has high rates of TB, which is one of the most common causes of death in HIV/AIDS patients. South Africa is estimated to have around 5.7 million HIV-positive people out of a population of 49 million.

With regard to disability grants, there are also widespread reports of people deliberately getting infected with HIV/AIDS in order to qualify for state aid.