Thread by @NaeemDalal

Zambia, we lost a being to COVID-19 who not only was saving lives but invested all his life to this.
Did you know that 1 Zambian Doctor services 10 to 13 thousand Zambians? THREAD in memory of Dr Mulwanda Edwin. 🖤🇿🇲🕊️

#ZedTwitter

https://twitter.com/NaeemDalal/status/1399655401969356801

One doctor’s death in Zambia is a loss to more than 10,000 Zambians. In Zambia decisions of life and death were already being made on a daily basis in standard healthcare, due to lack of resources. 1/14

Zambia’s healthcare system is overburdened. Pre-COVID-19 we had barriers/challenges, COVID-19 came & now saying: 'we are overwhelmed,' is an understatement. The narrative is often: “There is nothing much we can do” versus “We did everything in our ability to save this life" 2/14

A year and a half later, medical doctors and health personal have not had a sustainable supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) with erratic supply with many working with PPE that they themselves secure. 3/14

Many healthcare staff across the country are still working with the “do it yourself” protection gear as PPE needs are not continuous/sustainable. Now do not go off retweeting this and making this the key challenge and issue because YOU too have a role in this fight 4/14

What if any of the healthcare staff died of COVID-19?This will be a shock to the whole healthcare system as it will leave a huge vacuum in service delivery. 5/14

Well, in the past two waves that Zambia has experienced we have lost many health staff to COVID-19 and today we record a death of Dr Mulwanda Edwin, a young doctor who tirelessly spent the past year and a half servicing COVID-19 in Zambia. 🖤🖤🖤 MHSRIP 6/14

The question is, why are health workers in the frontline not speaking out about all these concerns and challenges? A shared perspective among many is that COVID-19 is a common enemy. 7/14

If Zambian healthcare staff speak out against the calm and reassuring, “We have it under control” message, it brews panic which will lead to more harm than good... However, it is only fair we speak the truth and reality, the third wave is winning. 8/14

COVID-19 is winning because we are losing our people; we are losing health staff, our socioeconomic standing is difficult and we cannot continue at this pace. 9/ 14

Having highlighted the weak and overburdened health systems in Zambia, the question is how we will cope with COVID-19? Zambia, like most African countries, continues to be overwhelmed by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. COVID-19 is now here... 10/14

Evidence suggests engaging ALL stakeholders (which includes YOU!) in preventing and controlling these & other diseases is the way to go. The community ( YOU!) needs to be engaged at all levels in order to mitigate the high burden of many preventable deaths COVID-19. 11/14

With COVID-19, we speak of protecting the vulnerable. Now, the healthcare staff of Zambia and the world are a rare commodity and need to be protected, in light of the already limited healthcare workforce. 12/14

The lack of PPE for healthcare staff on the frontline should be an urgent priority. Take care of us by providing adequate PPE, as this will help us better cope with patient care. Check-in on a health care worker near you, abide my preventive measures and get vaccinated! 13/14

Thank you for the recognition of all frontliners. We appreciate it but what we require from you all is to help frontline staff by following measures. For now, we don't want claps or hero salutes, we need YOU to help fight this outside the hospital. 14/14 RIP DR MULWANDA🙌