Reports issued by the Ministry of health over the last two weeks vividly indicate that the spread of the COVID-19 virus is trending towards moving in the uphill direction. The rapid increase in the proliferation of the virus resulted from the gradual increase in testing capacity of the Ministry indicating that the virus has already started to spread in communities and towns hitherto thought to be uninfected. Nonchalance to the preventive measures on the part of the public is forcing them to pay higher prices.
The situation is far more complicated by the prevalence of asymptomatic persons who can readily transmit the virus to hundreds of persons without showing any level of illness.
The unpredictable nature of the virus and lack of complete knowledge on the symptoms in which the virus manifests itself over a period of two weeks is a clinical and medical challenge that may be cleared by researchers over a period of time.
Although a lot has been done on public sensitization regarding the impending catastrophe the virus is causing, the public has remained nonchalant to the calls from the government on social distancing and related W.H.O precautionary regulations.
The country could reportedly face more infections over the coming two months, particularly during rainy season. Torrential rains, landslides and flood in various parts of the country could further complicate the national efforts to coordinate efforts in preventing the spread of the pandemic.
Of particular importance is the focus to be made on vulnerable persons ill with T.B and those living with HIIV virus. Increases in such cases may escalate the rate of infection and possible death rates.
Although the strategy of sharing meals is acceptable in the short run, it could useful if it is conducted in such a way that young but poor recipients could participate in cleaning the areas which are used as feeding centers. This could help to avoid a dependency syndrome that usually precipitates from philanthropic programs like maeide megarat (sharing meals).
It would also be appropriate to start the practice of sharing meals in rural settings during the rainy season particularly in areas with food stress with a special focuse on children and the aged.
Peoples from the neighboring countries are trekking into the country through our porous borders and contra-bandists are already exploiting the situation to earn their income at the expense of public health. Experts in the Ministry of Health predict that noncompliance to social distancing regulations at market places and public transport hubs are pausing a greater threat to the state of public health in the country.
It is very important to warn the public not only on the disaster that can befall the entire nation due to ignoring social distancing but also on specific details on the impact of the pandemic over unspecified period of time. On the other hand, extreme carelessness could also exacerbate the parallel spread of diseases like T.B and other upper respiratory infections.
Prevention is repeatedly prescribed as the only measure to reduce the total risk of the virus as treatment would certainly be very expensive and unaffordable. At the current rate of indifference to what health experts recommend, the country could be plunged into an irreversible total crisis which would utterly frustrate government efforts to contain the virus and ultimately make socioeconomic recovery impossible for decades.
I think it is very important to develop a media communication strategy that would consider diversity of cultures in the country with due consideration to age groups and gender differences. The country could be forced to grapple with the spread of the virus and its multi-faced aftermath through time and preparations are to be made as recovery from the results of the pandemic could take several years.
Communication on COVID-19 need not focus on the psychology of fear but should be disseminated with due consideration to turning the adherence to the regulations as a means of hope and better future. The psychological fear of the unknown and the invisible can seriously affect children and senior citizens by succumbing them to hysteria of helplessness and myopic understanding of the pandemic.
It would also be good to combine home to home screening with specific sensitization models that could be monitored and evaluated over time. Among other things, we need to come up with specific nutritional guidelines that consider developing public immune system against the virus and additional hygiene and sanitation guidelines that could be available to the public.
It is to be noted that much fulfillment of the nation’s development programs and other social activities would obviously depend on the extent to which the spread of the virus is contained in a sustained manner.
Enforcing public compliance to the provisions set in the state of emergency and regulations prescribed by the W.H.O is the only way in which the rate of infection by the virus could be reduced.
The Ethiopian herald June 9,2020
BY SOLOMON DIBABA
