{"id":1044,"date":"2019-04-25T16:41:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T14:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/?p=1044"},"modified":"2019-05-09T09:04:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T07:04:01","slug":"joy-in-limpopo-after-workers-cleared-of-malaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/?p=1044","title":{"rendered":"Joy in Limpopo after workers cleared of Malaria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: pexels.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One hundred and seventeen SAFE farm workers enjoyed a stress-free Easter after being cleared of malaria infection earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The farm workers were tested\u00a0for Malaria infection as part of a sustained campaign by SAFE to monitor the health of their employees,\u00a0according to Terecia Chiloa.<\/p>\n

At their farm at Skilderkrans, Limpopo, SAFE\u00a0produces oranges, lemons and soft citrus for export to Europe,\u00a0Russia, the Middle East and Far East. Planting, growing and harvesting the fruit is labour intensive so it’s in the best interest of the farm workers and SAFE to maintain a healthy workforce.<\/p>\n

According to SAFE General Manager of Farming\u00a0Operations, Dries van Rooyen, Malaria is one of the world’s most serious tropical diseases and imposes a significant economic cost in\u00a0countries\u00a0where the mosquito-spread disease\u00a0is endemic.<\/p>\n

In Southern Africa, Malaria\u00a0is prevalent mainly during the rainy months between September and May, with January to April being periods of high transmission.<\/p>\n

Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, three of South Africas’ nine provinces, have the highest incidences of Malaria\u00a0infection\u00a0where10% of the population (approximately 4.9 million people) are at risk of contracting the disease,\u00a0according to a report produced by the South\u00a0African\u00a0Department of Health.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Globally at least 3.2 billion\u00a0people are\u00a0at risk of contracting malaria, and an estimated 350-500 million clinical malaria cases are reported annually.\u00a0More than 600,000 malaria deaths occur in Africa and most are children under 5 years old.<\/p>\n

“Malaria is a preventable and curable disease,” says\u00a0Terecia. “But if not diagnosed and treated early, it can also be fatal.\u00a0Our programming at SAFE of testing is aimed at keeping our farms\u00a0and our workers malaria free”.<\/p>\n

Malaria is a parasitic disease transmitted by the female Anopheles <\/em>mosquito. It has plagued mankind for centuries.<\/p>\n

Malaria\u00a0parasites can be identified by examining under a microscope a drop of the patient’s blood, spread out as a \u201cblood smear\u201d on a microscope slide.\u00a0\u201cRapid Diagnostic\u00a0Tests\u201d (RDTs) offer a useful alternative to microscopy in situations where reliable microscopic diagnosis is not available.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health (DoH) has maintained a highly effective malaria control programme for over 60 years. Although the malaria risks are real, government health workers are steadfastly implementing measures to prevent infection. Their work is supported by the testing done by farm owners such as SAFE.<\/p>\n

According\u00a0to Dr. Richard Tren\u00a0Research Fellow of the Environment Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs\u00a0and an economist specialising in\u00a0environmental\u00a0and natural resource issues, there has been a sharp rise in the number of malaria cases in South\u00a0and Southern Africa in recent years.<\/p>\n

This he says is “due to a number of factors, such as high rainfall in recent years, increased migration and a reduction in the use of DDT in vector control. Read more here.<\/a><\/p>\n

“Testing our workers may not have a huge impact on the reduction of Malaria in\u00a0total, but we hope that the\u00a0example\u00a0we set will encourage other\u00a0employers and farm owners to take the health of their workers seriously, says Dries.<\/p>\n

“Our farm workers are critical in helping us to achieve the\u00a0success\u00a0we do in\u00a0our export\u00a0markets; the least we can do is help them to stay healthy”.<\/p>\n

* Updated 9 April to correct the fact that the testing took place at the SAFE farm, Skilderkrans\u00a0 <\/strong>(not Marble Hall.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One hundred and seventeen SAFE farm workers enjoyed a stress-free Easter after being cleared of malaria infection earlier this month. The farm workers were tested\u00a0for Malaria infection as part of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,62],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safe.co.za\/SAFENews\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}