Health and Child Welfare Minister Henry Madzorera said the government had not raised any alerts of an outbreak of the disease as they had not received reports of a possible epidemic.
“The Epidemics and Disease Control centre has not informed me about any outbreak, but they are closed and we can only know that after the holidays,” he said.
Madzorera said he could not comment further as he had not received any news of an outbreak.
Officials from the health ministry also revealed that there were no known cases of the virus in Zimbabwe or in the region. They said it was highly unlikely that there could have been an outbreak in the country.
The only recently recorded cases, the officials said, were reported in Hong Kong and a spread to Zimbabwe at this stage was highly improbable. But the family of the late senator insist that post-mortem results had indicated that Gombami had been afflicted with the deadly avian virus. The Standard could not have access to the post-mortem report.
To add to the mystery, a Kadoma doctor reportedly declined to carry out a postmortem and instead referred the family to a hospital in Harare.
“We were told that she had a swelling in her stomach because there was water in her lungs, but this did not make sense to us,” an informed source said.
The source said before her death, the senator was down with influenza, she however developed an unnamed infection in her chest.
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In the past Zimbabwe’s health systems have been reported to be incapable of handling epidemics such as bird and swine flu. In 2010 it was reported that some children in Tsholotsho were affected by swine flu. However, results on whether it was actually swine flu were inconclusive.
Meanwhile, a storm is brewing within the MDC-T after the party’s deputy president, Thokozani Khupe and women’s assembly boss, Theresa Makone failed to attend Gombami’s funeral.
At the funeral, people spoke in hushed tones on the absence of the duo, with Khupe reportedly having gone on holiday to Dubai.
Some mourners claimed Khupe could have postponed her trip by a day considering that she travelled either on the day of the funeral or a day before. They were particularly scathing on Makone, whom they said was working together with Gombami in the women’s assembly and should have been present.
But the party’s deputy spokesperson Tabitha Khumalo said: “They excused themselves because they had prior arrangements.”
