Limpopo’s MEC for Health Dr Phophi Ramuthuba is urging leprosy patients not to stop taking their treatment.
The MEC was speaking during a visit to the family of a woman (30) who has leprosy at Roadhouse village, Malamulele on World leprosy day last week.
Tinyiko Shivambu, a Mozambique national was diagnosed with leprosy in 2010.
Shivambu’s condition was discovered by a home-based care giver and she was immediately placed on medication, however, she stopped taking her medication in 2015 and her condition worsened.
“We urge patients to remain on their medication in order to avoid getting worse,” says Ramathuba.
Leprosy is an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around the body. The disease has been around since ancient times, often surrounded by terrifying, negative stigmas and tales of leprosy patients being shunned as outcasts.
Ramathuba also used her visit to lambast Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) alleging that they don’t pay
home-based care workers as they ought to, ‘’Starting from April this year, I will no longer renew contracts with NGO’s, l would rather take home-based care workers and give them permanent jobs in government departments.
We give NGOs a lot of money, which they should also use to pay their workers, but they rip them
off, they are primarily concerned with buying luxuries cars,’’ she concludes.
