AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has proved wrong circulated social media reports that there were a big number of Covid-19 patients in major hospitals in Dar es Salaam, as evidence points to a normal situation in most of the facilities.
The revelations came yesterday after Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Prof Mabula Mchembe, toured two key hospitals in the city.
Prof Mchembe made a surprise visit to the Mloganzila Hospital and Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) to get first hand information over what was said on the social media about the Covid- 19 patients.
His first leg of the tour was at Mloganzila Hospital, on the outskirts of the Dar es Salaam city where he met with the management to get a report over patients received at the facility before he visited various wards in the facility.
Later in the afternoon the PS visited the MNH, where he found out that many of the patients with respiratory problems were those suffering from diseases like hypertension, kidney failure, low blood red count and others.
“These diseases also affect the respiratory system; therefore it is not true that these people are Covid-19 positive,” the Permanent Secretary clarified.
At Mloganzila Hospital, for instance, Prof Mchemba visited three wards and saw patients with breathing complications but each of them had different health problems including kidney failure, hypertension and asthma.
“The public, especially social media users should not relate any disease that comes with breathing difficulty to Coronavirus, something which creates tension to others,” he warned.
He added: “Let’s all know that any one of us may become sick and come to these hospitals for treatment, what would you feel when others mock you when you are sick?”
The PS said the bad thing was that those who spread those misleading reports were probably relatives or friends of the patients who went to see their colleagues admitted to hospitals.
Earlier, at Mloganzila hospital, when briefing the Permanent Secretary, Dr Mwanaada Kilima, Specialist physician and pulmonologist, said from last month the facility received 74 patients whose diseases also affected respiratory systems. So far, 39 have remained after others were treated and discharged.
The health workers, she said, were attending to patients as usual until laboratory tests which make them decide specific treatment for the patients, she explained.
At the MNH, Dr Zuhura Mawona, director of the nursing services department, said the key facility accommodated a total of 1282 patients by yesterday, out of which 90 had diseases that affected their respiratory systems.
Spokesperson of the hospital, Mr Aminiel Eligaesha, further explained that during the last five years the facility has made great strides in improving services of intensive care units by increasing the number of ICUs.
Initially there was only one ICU with eight beds, but currently there are two ICUs for children and other ICUs were placed according to specialties such as surgical ICU and medical ICU.
Mr Eligaesha said due to presence of several ICUs even number of patients in ICUs has increased, contrary to reports that the increased number of patients in the ICU was due to Covid-19.
On the other hand, Prof Mchemba challenged the MNH to start producing drips for its own use instead of depending on imported drips.
He wondered why the national hospital with over 20 pharmacists and at least 20 pharmaceutical technicians do not have a plant to produce drips, while hospitals like Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) and Bugando Medical Centre have factories for producing the product.
