Two top public officials, Dennis Lett and Ruggles Ferguson, have called for the resignation of Health Minister, Senator Ann David-Antoine, who recently told the Senate that it was not her "concern'' who has tuberculosis (TB) "or who don't" on the island.
The female government minister made the remarks after George Prime, the Deputy Political Leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), revealed in the Senate that he had obtained a copy of a report showing that an inmate at the Richmond Hill Prison was receiving treatment for TB.
Senator David-Antoine, responding to Senator Prime, said: "Like any other medical disease there is treatment available for tuberculosis.
"I don't know what all this drama is about. It's not my concern who have it (TB) or who don't have it. There can be people sitting in this very building who are infected'', she replied much to the amazement of other Senators.
The Health Minister's comments angered many Grenadians including Ferguson, a lawyer and President of the Grenada Bar Association (GBA)."The minister ought to resign,'' Ferguson said on Straight Talk, a radio program produced by the National Media Centre, associated with the Congress party and broadcast on Voice of Grenada.
The GBA President was the first to raise public concern about preventing the spread of TB after he received a report last October that a prison inmate was suffering from tuberculosis.
He said he made a verbal report to officials at the Ministry of Health and was given the assurance they were going to deal with the matter.
Ferguson said he heard nothing further for a week and raised the matter a second time in a letter to the Health Minister.
He was subsequently verbally attacked and accused of "creating alarm'' by representatives of the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) government, especially after lawyers and judges decided against participating in sittings of the assizes until tests were done on the prison population.
Some tests were done and they determined that in the jail, some prisoners had inactive TB, which is not spread from person to person."What happened subsequently that they told nobody about,'' said Ferguson, "is that over twenty-something persons were put on treatment for the inactive TB to make sure that the tuberculosis doesn't become active.
"I have all the statistics and have spoken to medical officials, so I can afford to speak freely without fear of contradiction'', he added.
Ferguson described as "irresponsible'' David-Antoine's apparent unconcern of the latest report of TB at the prison.
TB is a communicable disease and a public health concern, he insisted.
"Image a Minister of Health is going to go in the Parliament of Grenada, where an issue is raised about tuberculosis and she says, in effect, it is not her concern,'' said Ferguson.
"She goes on to say, in effect, that if people don't get sick, the doctors won't get work; and if people don't die, the undertakers won't get work. Could you imagine a Minister of Health making such irresponsible statements?''
Lett, the NDC Member of Parliament for St. David, agreed that David Antoine should step aside as Health Minister.
"We feel it's quite unfortunate that the Minister of Health should make such a statement,'' Lett said."I think the only thing she can do is resign. She's showing she is not capable of manning that post. She should definitely resign.''
