health talk:with Dr Johannes Marisa
Coronavirus continues to torment everyone with the world economists lamenting the possible loss of about US$9 trillion in the next two years. Medical practitioners are burdened by ever-rising cases while morgues cannot cope with the high number of bodies. More than 135 000 people have succumbed to Covid-19, with more than two million infections.
As of Friday, Africa had more than 16 800 cases with total deaths of 890 people. South Africa tops the list now with 2 415 cases followed by Egypt with about 2 350 cases, Algeria with about 2 070 cases and Morocco with about 1 890.
Zimbabwe has adopted a number of preventive measures against the spread of Covid-19. Social distancing, lockdown, and quarantine have all been preached about.
These measures are very noble, cheap and easy if we all put our hearts together. It is surely better to protect ourselves from this global scourge than to wait for hospital admission. I would want to categorically applaud the security services for taking a hard-line stance in a bid to enforce the lockdown. The measures are warranted at the moment because once we are hit by the coronavirus as what is happening in the United States where close to 35 000 people have died, then we stand to collapse our entire economy in a spate of one month.
The government has accelerated its testing and by the end of the testing period, the country hopes to have reached to over 33 000 people by April 30, 2020. Note that this is not the time to listen to alarming and fake conspiracy theories underlying the testing. The issue of the test kits being pre-contaminated with Covid-19 is not only malicious, but suicidal from those who are against containment and mitigation of the virus. The following categories of people will thus be tested:
lAll individuals fitting the case definition.
lAll travellers coming into the country from affected countries.
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lPeople with influenza-like illnesses in hospitals and in communities.
lAll contacts of confirmed cases regardless of showing symptoms of the disease.
lAll cases of pneumonia admitted in hospitals.
lAll patients with fever in health facilities.
lAll health care workers working in the frontline for the Covid-19 response from central hospitals, hospitals, clinics or private institutions.
lPeople who have been working during the lockdown and were interfacing with the community like law enforcement agents, petrol attendants, and food outlets employees. lAll people above 60 years admitted in hospitals who have chronic diseases like asthma, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
On another note, I have noted that a lot of people need to be taught about the handling of masks and gloves. If we are not careful, the same gloves that are known to protect yourself, can be extremely dangerous to the war against transmission. It is prudent that gloves be confined to medical institutions only. Please note the following:
lGloves are worn to avoid cross-contamination.
lIn clinical settings, a clinician will glove up before touching a patient and the gloves are discarded before moving onto another task.
lIf you are wearing the same gloves when doing your shopping, touching food supplies, touching trolleys, keys, doors, steering wheel, cellphone, your eyes or mouth, you are killing yourself by spreading the deadly Covid-19. This is the case with many who keep one pair of gloves in situ.
lIt is better not to wear gloves at all, instead, wash your hands with soap or use alcohol-based sanitiser after a task.
Masks have also been inappropriately worn. You may use a lot of money wearing N95 masks yet doing it wrongly. Please note that when you put on a mask, you need to observe the following:
lCover your mouth and nose.
lMake sure there are no gaps between your face and the mask. This means your mask should be tight on the face.
lPlease avoid touching the mask when using it. If you do so, clean your hands with alcohol-based sanitisers or soapy water.
lAvoid walking around with masks hanging around your necks. You will be tempted to continuously touch it with your bare hands. Touching your mucous membranes will be bad for transmission.
Let us be warriors to combat the spread of this deadly virus. Failure to contain the virus will give us more misery as we will lose our beloved ones, our businesses and, above all, our national economy.
Till next week.
lDr Johannes Marisa is a medical practitioner and an educationist who can be accessed on [email protected]
