TB woman ‘detained lawfully’

A South African woman who has been detained in hospital after refusing to accept treatment for a suspected case of drug resistant tuberculosis has been detained lawfully, the High Court has ruled.
Mr Justice John Edwards said this was one of those rare cases where an order to detain a person in order to protect the public interest could be made. The woman has two young daughters, one of whom has been taken into care and the other is being minded by the father.

He has said her situation is dire and tragic and he will now ask for a medical examiner to visit the woman and assess her capacity to take decisions for herself. The woman had claimed her detention was unlawful because there were no proper appeals procedure under the Health Acts. Mr Justice Edwards said the detention order, made under the 1947 Health Act and 1953 Health Amendment Act, was sufficient to detain the woman
The woman, who is from South Africa, has consistently refused treatment and is currently detained in a hospital room which is specially pressurised. The judge said that he would ask the president of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, to send a medical visitor to see the woman on a future date to assess her mental state and capacity to make decisions.
Because the woman has refused treatment the hospital has been unable to perform a specific test to determine what form of TB she is suspected to be suffering from.
The woman had brought a case under Article 40 of the Constitution challenging her detention by health authorities under the 1947 Health Act.
Under this legislation, a person can be detained until the committing officer is satisfied that person is no longer a source of infection.