President Robert Mugabe’s Health Advisor, Dr Timothy Stamps, has rubbished claims that Zimbabwe may be in danger of an Ebola outbreak.
BY CHIPO MASARA
In an interview with The Standard, Dr Stamps, a former Health minister asserted that Zimbabwe, unlike Guinea, Sierra Leone, DRC, Liberia and other West African countries affected by the virus, did not have the “total conditions” to allow the haemorrhagic virus to adapt.
“But at the moment, from what I can discern, it [Ebola virus] cannot [come to Zimbabwe] because we haven’t got the total conditions…We don’t have the heavy rainfall or the rainforests except in Victoria Falls and some parts around the country,” he said.
According to Dr Stamps, in order for Ebola or any other haemorrhagic virus to spread, there has to be a reservoir (a person, animal, plant or substance in which an infectious agent normally lives and multiplies).
However, Dr Stamps said that in the unlikely event that the dreaded virus was to somehow invade Zimbabwe, the Health ministry was capable of handling it.
“The intelligence is there and the ability is there. It is the people on the ground that need to be boosted and now, not next year.”
“They are very circumspect, they are careful to only speak about things they know, and to admit freely if they do not know—that’s important!” he said of the Health ministry.
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He however emphasised on the need to prioritise the ministry and give it more access to money.
“We do need more health workers and more health workers who are properly trained. That’s the one area which I will emphasise,” said Dr Stamps.
He appealed to Zimbabweans to not allow fear to take over as that would be undesirable.
“You know JF Kennedy used to say, ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’. It is the fear itself which produces an electrical reaction.
He advised anyone that may suspect they have Ebola symptoms to calm down and logically look at where they have been for the past 21 days, which is the maximum incubation period.
Ebola has been wreaking havoc in West Africa and has to date killed close to 5 000 people, with Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and DRC being among the countries worst hit.
The World Health Organisation recently certified Nigeria free of Ebola after the country had battled with the virus for months.
In Zimbabwe, there are real fears that a combination of factors that include a lack of a functional health delivery system, lack of trained health workers, porous points of entry combined with a lack of Ebola screening at border posts, may all aid in bringing the virus into the country
