A PREGNANT woman from Hwange in Matabeleland North recently lost her job and has become homeless with her two minor children after being abandoned by her boyfriend and family because she tested positive to Covid-19.
An ambulance crew picked her from the streets on a freezing
Monday night with her children aged six and nine, who are not infected with the
virus. She is now housed at an isolation centre with the children.
Her heartbreaking story exposes how some communities still
stigmatise people infected with the coronavirus, more than 15 months after it
hit the country.
The woman whose identity has been withheld for ethical
reasons, tested Covid-19 positive upon visiting Lukosi Hospital in Hwange to
receive prenatal care.
Sources said the woman was a maid at Baobab low density
suburb but her employer was the first to chuck her out. She moved to her
mother’s home in Mpumalanga DRC section where she was also chased away.
The woman is said to have sought refuge at her live-in
boyfriend’s home in Mpumalanga suburb where she was also chased away. A Hwange
Local Board (HLB) ambulance crew located her on the street after an anonymous
tip-off.
“HLB officials took her to the council clinic where she
slept overnight before she was taken to Five Miles Isolation Centre where she
is now quarantined. The isolation centre is not ready to attend to any patient
at the moment so the woman has to cook for herself and her children. There is
no food and none of her relatives have come to assist her. Her live-in
boyfriend came once and promised to return for the children. He has not been
heard from ever since.
There is a real risk that she might even infect her
children with Covid-19. She had to be rescued by well-wishers who had to bring
food for her to cook at the facility,” said a source.
Hwange District Medical Officer Dr Fungai Musinami
confirmed the case.
“We got a report that one patient that had been diagnosed
Covid-19-positive had been chased away from where she stays. We managed to pick
her up and have accommodated her at Five Miles Isolation Centre with her two
children who are Covid-19 negative. In terms of being isolated with her kids,
it’s not really a big problem because we have enough room so that they may not
cross-contaminate each other while they are at File Miles,” said Dr Musinami.
“But obviously on humanitarian grounds, for someone to then
be out on the street in the middle of the night with her children while also
pregnant it’s not a good situation. It’s cold and uncomfortable. That was not a
good situation for her. Yes, she might be getting medical care on her pregnancy
but family support would have been good at this time. She does not having
severe symptoms.”
She said the way the woman was handled points to
stigmatisation and it was worrying that such cases should be reported at a time
when there is so much information on Covid-19 being circulated.
Dr Musinami said not all Covid-19-positive patients need to
be institutionally quarantined.
“That will overcome our health centres, it will overwhelm
our staff. We have people who are Covid-19-positive but asymptomatic. We cannot
be putting those people into facilities, where we would have people watching
over them, feeding them and using all those resources when people can isolate
at home. We are continuing to educate the community not to stigmatise but
continue to practising precautions that we have been talking about. We will
continue to talk about hand sanitisation, masking up and observing social
distancing,” said Dr Musinami.
She said the isolation centre was able to handle
non-critical cases as it does not have oxygen facilities.
Matabeleland North acting Provincial Medical Director Dr
Munekayi Padingani said the province was recording an increase in the number of
pregnant women testing Covid-19-positive.
“We are actually recording an outbreak of Covid-19 among
women but our facilities are not equipped to handle pregnant women. We are
mainly attending to those women whom we know would have recovered by the time
they deliver. We don’t have theatres to assist in having women delivering in
our institutions and we have to refer them to hospitals in Bulawayo,” said Dr
Padingani.
He said delivering babies entails a lot of contact and this
means that there is a need to enhance protection for health workers as well as
the mother.
Centre for Health Communication Zimbabwe communications and
advocacy officer Ms Andile Tshuma said the case exposed how women, especially
pregnant ones can be vulnerable.
“This situation is even stressful for her unborn child
because when the mother is stressed, the child would become stressed as well.
This will affect the woman’s well-being especially at a time the country is
dealing with high cases of maternal mortality cases. We are also hearing that
Covid-19 cases among pregnant women are on the increase at hospitals such as
Mpilo Central Hospital. This means that Government has to pay attention to
improving access to health care particularly on maternal health care,” said Ms
Tshuma.
She said the case also points to issues of stigmatisation
where communities do not seem to understand Covid-19 issues.
Ms Tshuma said as Covid-19 cases are mainly reported at institutional level, such incidents could lead to some women shunning health centres because of fear of being confirmed as having the virus. Chronicle
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