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Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique
Given the very high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among health workers in Mozambique, a low-income country in Southern Africa, implementation of measures to protect health workers from occupational TB remains a major challenge. This study explores how Mozambique’s legal framework and health system...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589114/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33081345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207546 |
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author | Garcia, Regiane Spiegel, Jerry M. Yassi, Annalee Ehrlich, Rodney Romão, Paulo Nunes, Elizabete A. Zungu, Muzimkhulu Mabhele, Simphiwe |
author_facet | Garcia, Regiane Spiegel, Jerry M. Yassi, Annalee Ehrlich, Rodney Romão, Paulo Nunes, Elizabete A. Zungu, Muzimkhulu Mabhele, Simphiwe |
author_sort | Garcia, Regiane |
collection | PubMed |
description | Given the very high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among health workers in Mozambique, a low-income country in Southern Africa, implementation of measures to protect health workers from occupational TB remains a major challenge. This study explores how Mozambique’s legal framework and health system governance facilitate—or hinder—implementation of protective measures in its public (state-provided) healthcare sector. Using a mixed-methods approach, we examined international, constitutional, regulatory, and policy frameworks. We also recorded and analysed the content of a workshop and policy discussion group on the topic to elicit the perspectives of health workers and of officials responsible for implementing workplace TB policies. We found that despite a well-developed legal framework and national infection prevention and control policy, a number of implementation barrier persisted: lack of legal codification of TB as an occupational disease; absence of regulations assigning specific responsibilities to employers; failure to deal with privacy and stigma fears among health workers; and limited awareness among health workers of their legal rights, including that of collective action. While all these elements require attention to protect health workers from occupational TB, a stronger emphasis on their human and labour rights is needed alongside their perceived responsibilities as caregivers. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7589114 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75891142020-10-29 Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique Garcia, Regiane Spiegel, Jerry M. Yassi, Annalee Ehrlich, Rodney Romão, Paulo Nunes, Elizabete A. Zungu, Muzimkhulu Mabhele, Simphiwe Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Given the very high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) among health workers in Mozambique, a low-income country in Southern Africa, implementation of measures to protect health workers from occupational TB remains a major challenge. This study explores how Mozambique’s legal framework and health system governance facilitate—or hinder—implementation of protective measures in its public (state-provided) healthcare sector. Using a mixed-methods approach, we examined international, constitutional, regulatory, and policy frameworks. We also recorded and analysed the content of a workshop and policy discussion group on the topic to elicit the perspectives of health workers and of officials responsible for implementing workplace TB policies. We found that despite a well-developed legal framework and national infection prevention and control policy, a number of implementation barrier persisted: lack of legal codification of TB as an occupational disease; absence of regulations assigning specific responsibilities to employers; failure to deal with privacy and stigma fears among health workers; and limited awareness among health workers of their legal rights, including that of collective action. While all these elements require attention to protect health workers from occupational TB, a stronger emphasis on their human and labour rights is needed alongside their perceived responsibilities as caregivers. MDPI 2020-10-16 2020-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7589114/ /pubmed/33081345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207546 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Garcia, Regiane Spiegel, Jerry M. Yassi, Annalee Ehrlich, Rodney Romão, Paulo Nunes, Elizabete A. Zungu, Muzimkhulu Mabhele, Simphiwe Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title | Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title_full | Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title_fullStr | Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title_full_unstemmed | Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title_short | Preventing Occupational Tuberculosis in Health Workers: An Analysis of State Responsibilities and Worker Rights in Mozambique |
title_sort | preventing occupational tuberculosis in health workers: an analysis of state responsibilities and worker rights in mozambique |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7589114/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33081345 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207546 |
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