Know your role in curbing spread of coronavirus

By The Standard | Jul. 4, 2021

Covid-19 continues to tear the world apart with more and more casualties.It is sad as all age groups are infected and affected with serious impact on the political, economical, social aspects of humanity. The sad observation is that the virus seems to slip under our noses and many of the infections occur under our watch […]

health talk

with Dr Johannes Marisa

What is needed is mere discipline and consequent compliance with the stipulated public health measures if we are to be at a gratifying position. So far, the world has lost close to four million people who have all succumbed to the invisible Covid-19.

South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, Botswana and Zambia are terribly hit with many casualties. The end seems far. It is not easy to lose companions unexpectedly especially to something that one does not have direct control over.

Zimbabwe has started to experience a torrid time with hospitals raising a red flag over admission space already. On Friday, Zimbabwe recorded at least 1 400 new cases with 33 deaths recorded on the same day.

The spread is occurring at supersonic speed at the moment. We do not like the unfortunate scenarios of January 2021 to appear again, but it is starting to show signs of viral virulence already with many serious patients reporting sudden deterioration of their conditions. The country needs to take corrective action as the calamitous virus is fast attacking us.

In 2007, the World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with six building blocks of a robust health system. These are health workforce, service delivery, medicines, leadership, financing and information systems.

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Whatever we try to do to contain Covid-19 should have a matrix that includes virtually all the building blocks of a lively health delivery system. It is thus important to note that collaborative effort can upset Covid-19 and all of us become victors at last. Know your role today.

Find yourself a place to fit and contribute to the mitigation and containment of the virus. The following should be taken note of:

Health workforce: It should be dedicated, motivated and incentivised if a candid health service is to be realised.

Leadership: The health leaders should show paternalistic nature with some transformative characteristics that will promote change in the health sector. Traditional ways of doing things should be eliminated.

Financing: All those with capacity to finance the health sector should do so as soon as possible. Public health delivery in Zimbabwe is mainly funded by government through a tax-based system. All the moneys budgeted for health delivery should be released to procure hospital equipment, purchase ambulances, drugs, sundries etcetera.Any organisations that are willing to assist our country should do so.

Information systems: Our health information systems should be modernised in order to capture as much information as possible. Accurate data is required for strategic planning.

At individual level, it is important to take note that our behaviour is very important and failure to be responsible can lead to a health catastrophe. It is, therefore, imperative that we be reminded of the following about Covid-19:

That Africa is being swept at the moment with many countries raising the red flag. What is needed is to scale up our testing and contact tracing. So much in terms of resources should be channelled to the procurement of testing kits. We do not want to be caught unaware and sooner than later, we will be in a health quandary. Namibia has reported overwhelmed health facilities. Zambia has seen daily cases going beyond 3 000, a situation quite rare for many African countries considering poor collation of data and low testing. Margin of error in Africa should be raised to 500% if the continent is to have more accurate situational analysis. We all know that with close to three million Zimbabweans being in South Africa, any afflictions which affect South Africa may extend to us as the immediate neighbour. The reality is that there are many Covid-19 cases now roaming around the streets of many towns with medical centres detecting those who present to clinics or surgeries. However, denialism is proving to be dorminant as many of these patients shun testing. I am not sure why other people think they cannot contract this heinous virus which seems to be everywhere now.

That many people are now neglecting public health measures like social distancing, masking up, hand-washing and sanitisation which may breed misery in a few days to come. It is your duty to promote health and masking up is not to evade police arrest, but for your benefit.

We ought to remain alert as a nation, but mere observation of what is happening especially in the high density suburbs leaves a lot to be desired. We want to avoid a health care system catastrophe with unbearable number of cases and deaths, hence the need to flatten the epidemiological curve while raising the line. If many people are going to be infected at the same time, we have high risk of fatalities as medical staff may fail to cope with pressure.

This is the time for robust health education. Mass media should play critical roles in information dissemination. Many people are complacent yet the virus is ravaging across the country with the unfortunate developments of affecting the rural populace especially in Mashonaland West. Gatherings for sure should remain banned as of now. The way people are now behaving in Zimbabwe leaves a lot to be desired with some arguing that there is no more Covid-19 in the country. Hey, the attack is already on us and people should learn to report symptoms and signs early. The issue of denialism should not creep into your brain as it results in delayed seeking of treatment. Self-treatment should never be allowed to go beyond many days if patients are not showing marked improvements. Remember Covid-19 causes septic shock, thrombo-embolism, renal impairment, respiratory distress syndrome and complicated patients would require oxygen or ventilation.