As African mines are located mostly in remote areas, there is a serious need for Malaria managemnet at these sites, says health and safety training specialist company ATA International director Trevor Justus.

In 2012, ATA International was approached by two clients in Ghana and Nigeria. They requested specialised training that focuses on assisting occupational professionals who have to treat patients suffering from malaria to prevent prolonged periods of absence from the workplace, he adds.

“After identifying the need for additional expertise, ATA International contacted work-place health and wellness leader Occupational Care South Africa (OCSA), which specialises in training and customised programmes. OCSA assisted us in compiling a malarial management concept that also focuses on overall wellness issues, such as the monitoring of and counselling for high blood pressure,” Justus says.

The design for this course was completed towards the end of last year.

Prevention is better than cure and that is what ATA International’s course is based on, he says, adding that the biggest portion of the course comprises awareness.

“There are a lot of expatriates who have been working on mines for years who believe that they are immune to malaria and then stop taking preventive medication. African nationals working on the mines might also not acknowledge the dangers. The course aims to create awareness among these people.”

Justus notes that, while most mines have malarial management programmes, which include passive measures such as fogging, ATA International’s course gets employees actively involved in malaria prevention and management.

The course is aimed at clinic staff who have to treat employees who have contracted malaria and certain key senior staff, such as shift leaders.

“Shift leaders, for example, lead a team and if they attended the course, where a message is given to them, they can, in turn, pass the message on to their subordinates,” he explains.

Further, the course is mobile. “It is expensive to send groups of people to South Africa to attend a course and it makes much more sense to send an expert to the mine to present the course,” Justus adds.

“The key aspect of the success of this programme is ensuring instructor availability. ATA International traditionally requests an eight-week advance notice and, if the instructor is available, we could manage to set it up sooner. This is, however, subject to visa requirements, which traditionally take six weeks to be finalised,” he says.

Justus is confident of the future outlook for the ATA International malarial management training course. “The amount of interest that has been generated across Africa is a positive sign for the future and I am optimistic that we can expand our capabilities in the years to come,” he concludes