From Burden to Action: A Scoping Study on TB in Madagascar’s Mining Sector

Madagascar's National TB Control Programme has identified miners as a high-risk group. However, little evidence exists to explain why, how many miners are affected, which types of mining operations carry the greatest risk, or how TB spreads within these communities. This project, led jointly by Swiss TPH and the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar (IPM), aims to close this evidence gap.

As an explorative study, the project combines scoping visits with analysis of existing TB notification data to characterise patterns over time and across locations. This will help clarify the true burden of TB among miners and the factors driving it, ranging from working and living conditions to occupational exposures such as dust from mining activities. Findings will be discussed with stakeholders in a workshop to define priorities and potential next steps. The project also aims to strengthen collaboration between the health and mining sectors, an approach rarely applied to TB control in Madagascar to date. Ultimately, the work is intended to lay the groundwork for a larger follow-up research project addressing TB prevention, diagnosis, and care among miners and surrounding communities.