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Dr Tatenda Simango

Warm greetings to you all. I hope I find you well and in good health under the frigid winter conditions we have been experiencing this week.

I would like to thank all the readers who follow the column, your feedback is really meaningful in improving the relevance of the discussions. One of the readers made an interesting observation after reading the article on how elusive the Covid-19 pandemic has been.

The aspect of the public knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) towards Covid-19 and how it affects their lives. The medical breakthroughs and challenges should be matched to the acceptance of these policies by the public.

The public knowledge, attitudes and practices should not be ignored at a critical time as this because we can develop the most sophisticated medical technology but as long as the common person, for which it is designed cannot digest it, we have a stale mate.

There has been a steep increase of cases in the past month with over 1 000 Covid-19 positive cumulative cases being in Zimbabwe. As much as we cannot put a finger on the obvious cause of the local transmission increases, we have to consider the porous borders as a good cause. There are several unaccounted-for border jumpers who are sneaking between the Beitbridge border for various reasons, mainly trade (omalayitsha). They interact with the community and are a potential source of local transmission.

For the accounted cases that tested positive at the borders, a good number of them have escaped without a trace, adding to the number of local case transmissions.

If KAPs are not addressed and aligned to scientific facts we cannot achieve the ultimate goal of controlling the Covid-19 infection because guidelines have to be understood and be acceptable for them to be implemented.

Covid-19 has challenged the basis of being human, it has attacked the core of our social fibre. It has outlawed social visits, hugs, handshakes, social gatherings such as religious, weddings, sport, bars, recreational activities like going to the cinema, musical shows, theatre — the list cannot be exhausted. All these have been stopped indefinitely.

Hand washing has been made a norm, unlike in the old days when it was done before meals and after using the lavatory. Classroom schooling is now a hazard to our health, this is/ was the key to a brighter future.

Ways of earning a living have been deemed non-essential, the Bulawayo food market along 5th Avenue that had been operational since time immemorial was condemned overnight. Traders in various wares were not spared, motor spares, side walk vendors, “mabhero”, airtime, newspaper vendors; it’s a depressingly endless list. Thinking of the impact of Covid-19 really gets one contemplating the attitude of the groups of people that have been affected by the stringent rules that have been implemented.

In as much as knowledge of Covid-19 has been reasonably disseminated and accepted by the general public, livelihoods have been ruined. The symptoms that are experienced and the measures that should be taken to prevent have been well broadcast on mainstream and social media. Misinformation still tries to show its ugly head but radio and television has tried to thwart such misgivings.

An informed group will develop an attitude of acceptance or resilience to the knowledge gained and this will ultimately affect their practices (behaviour). In the initial stages of Covid-19, the impression was that this is a “rich-person’s” illness, the airplane travellers were the victims, so the common person was not bothered by this international illness. When we recorded our first confirmed cases and death, the belief became that the statistics being released were not an accurate representation of the real situation on the ground. This did not change the attitude of the populace from their complacent stance. It was treated as though it would be a passing phase.

The lapse of the initial 21-day lockdown was misconstrued to believe that the Covid-19 had come to an end and now it was time to pick the pieces and resume business as usual. However, the rude awakening came this month as we are seeing an alarming number of new cases on a daily basis. This has made people change their attitude and start realising the gravity of the matter. The masks that used to protect the forehead from the sun are now being worn appropriately. Children are no longer seen loitering the city streets. These are some of the changes in practice; they stay at home and those who can have online studies study indoors.

We still have the non-believers who ask, “Doc, is corona really there?” The answer is simple, YES. I have colleagues who are under isolation, fortunately most of them with mild symptoms, front-liners in the medical field missing from battle. Let us not take Covid-19 lightly. Trending on social media in the past week was a group of South Africans who had an “after tears” party. All the attendees were diagnosed Covid-19 positive with some of them now on ventilators.

Contact tracing, a method of identifying all the possible people whom a Covid-19 positive case would have interacted with or come in contact with, is done manually/ physically via calls or visits to the contacts.

This process is cumbersome and needs a lot of resources to sustain. As the figures of positive cases keep growing, we will need a software application developed to help with the contact tracing. This will have to be spearheaded by Government and has to follow strict confidentiality protocol.

Stigma is another one of the biggest battles we will have to conquer; coughing in public these days has everyone ogling. If you cough the second time people will start dispersing. Reintegrating will be a struggle for a fully recovered Covid-19 patient. This is one of the reasons patient information should be kept confidential. The best way is to keep giving accurate information on acceptance of recovered patients back into society.

For us to avoid the further stalling of return to the “new” normal, we all need to have a positive attitude in dealing with Covid-19. Furthermore, we need to apply practices that do not promote the spread of the virus and stigma. Till next week, stay safe and keep warm.

Dr Tatenda Simango can be contacted on [email protected] or follow him on Facebook@ 9th Avenue Surgery.