New ‘health’ passport introduced for truck drivers

A new passport for truck drivers has just been introduced onto the market. Not the department of home affairs version, but “a passport to health”, according to Paul Matthew, director for Africa at the North Star Foundation – a venture jointly conceived by the TNT group and the World Food Programme (WFP), and also with aid from the United Nations. As part of its health outreach, the foundation has established a network of 15 Wellness Centres in SA and 11 over the border – in Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, DRC, Kenya, Ruanda and Tanzania, and is busy bringing Botswana and Mozambique on-line. This gives coverage of all the major truck routes in the sub-Saharan region of the continent, according to Matthew. “Successful long-term prevention and treatment programmes need up-to-date information on patients,” he told FTW. “So, as part of our efforts to promote the health and wellbeing of long-distance truck drivers, assistants and other mobile workers in Africa, the foundation developed the ‘Corridor MEdical Transfer System (COMETS)’ – which we linked to our HIV Aids project, which in turn is also linked to the National Health Scheme. ” The current version of this modular system focuses on supporting Wellness Centre staff in the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). COMETS contains national protocols for STI treatments and links them to the centres’ pharmaceutical inventory – with the system recording prescriptions, dispensations and referrals to other health service providers. Planned future upgrades include provisions to record clinical data essential to the support of antiretroviral treatment and for tuberculosis. “People on the move need healthcare services that move with them, and our passport to health fulfils this task,” Matthew said.