Yes. Whenever a diagnosis of TB is made in a worker, the possibility that it is work-related and compensable must always be explored. A detailed occupational history is therefore necessary.
TB is compensable if the worker performed at least 200 risk shifts and has clinically "active" TB during employment or contracted TB within 12 months of working the last risk shift. The following steps are therefore recommended:
If the worker qualifies for compensation, submit the following materials to the MBOD:
The ODMWA provides for lump sum payments for first or second degree occupational disease, this includes chronic cardio-respiratory TB that leaves permanent impairment after healing. If the worker has both Pneumoconiosis (silicosis in this exercise) and Pulmonary Tuberculosis, second degree compensation is payable. The following steps are therefore recommended:
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3 – 5: Occupational Medicine & Toxicology by Prof Rodney Ehrlich & Prof Mohamed Jeebhay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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