The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 524 (July 29 - August 11 2020)

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Page6 TheTrumpet JULY 29 - AUGUST 11 2020 News Burkina Faso: Tackling COVID-19 fear and stigma Tackling COVID-19 fear and stigma Hesitancy to get tested, avoiding contact tracers or wariness of what the neighbours will say: the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a variety of reactions among some Ouagadougou residents that have complicated timely response. When the country’s COVID-19 rapid response team tried to reach out to a man who had been in contact with a patient taken for treatment at a Ouagadougou hospital, he shifted from refusing to take calls, to promising to show up for testing and to suggesting that the team comes to his house only at night. “He said that since we went to his house to take samples, even before the test results were known, no-one came to visit them again. Everybody was staring at them strangely. It was really difficult for them,” says Safiatou Ouedraogo, coordinator of the rapid response team at the Centre Medical Urbain in Ouagadougou. COVID-19 is a new virus and the fear of the unknown drives stigma about the disease and can cause people to hide their illness. Fear can also hold people back from seeking immediate health care or observing preventive measures. Days of determined negotiations is what it sometimes takes for response teams to visit families when a family member tests positive for the virus. But even then, some refuse to reveal their addresses, preferring to turn up at a treatment centre instead. “Due to stigma, people would rather not have the rapid response team show up at their house,” Ouedraogo explains. She recounts that among some families, each visit requires fresh negotiations to allow the response team to follow up on contacts or disinfect their compound. “We realized that the neighbours’ reaction towards the (affected) family every time we came to take samples opened new wounds,” she says. Once a home guard who contracted COVID-19 refused to give his own address, preferring that of his work station and attempts to reach the people he might have come in contact with were fruitless, recounts Ouedraogo. Barthelemy Marie Ludovic Ouedraogo, a School Principal and a Cleric, says while suffering persistent fever he began taking precautions such as avoiding sharing utensils and attending mass with colleagues, but he did not reveal to them that he was feeling ill until he went to an isolation centre. “I was really worried for them.” Providing the right information about COVID-19, addressing misinformation and rumours, as well as building trust with communities, are critical in addressing stigma. In addition, communicating with empathy to patients of COVID-19 is as important as engaging with community, religious leaders and other influencers to relay the right information and help reduce fear and how people perceive those who are ill with the virus. Setting up centres where people who suspect they have caught the virus can go for testing rather than have home visits by the rapid response teams could ease the stigma and fear, Safiatou Ouedraogo suggests, also pointing out that increasing public education campaigns and the use of the psychosocial care units in health centres are helpful steps. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working with the government to provide guidance to tackle stigma as well as support other aspects of the COVID-19 response, says Dr Fousseni Dao, who represents WHO in the national COVID-19 response cluster in charge of treatment. Dr Brice Bicaba, the national Anew report shows that people in some 25 countries are set to face devasting levels of hunger in coming months due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. While the greatest concentration of need is in Africa, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the Middle East and Asia – including middle-income countries - are also being ravaged by crippling levels of food insecurity, according to the Early Warning Analysis of Acute Food Security Hotspots, compiled by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. “Three months ago at the UN Security Council, I told world leaders that we ran the risk of a famine of biblical proportions,” said WFP Executive Director David Beasley. “Today, our latest data tell us that, since then, millions of the world’s very poorest families have been forced even closer to the abyss. Livelihoods are being destroyed at an unprecedented rate and now their lives are in imminent danger from starvation. Make no mistake – if we do not act now to end this pandemic of human suffering, many people will die” To prevent the worst, WFP is scaling up to provide food assistance to an COVID-19 response coordinator, acknowledges that not only are patients stigmatized, health workers, especially those in COVID-19 treatment centres, are also shunned by their communities who fear that their jobs have put them at a higher risk of contracting the virus. He also points out that involving people who unprecedented 138 million people who face desperate levels of hunger as the pandemic tightens its grip on some of the most fragile countries on earth. The cost of WFP’s response to this burgeoning food insecurity is estimated at US$ 4.9 billion, with an additional $500 million being earmarked to prevent the outbreak of famine in countries most at risk. This represents more than half of the updated COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, the largest appeal in the UN’s history, launched for more than US$ 10 billion. The plan covers wide-ranging humanitarian needs in more than 60 have recovered from COVID-19 in public information and education campaigns as well as providing psychosocial support are some of the measures being deployed against stigma. “We’re hopeful that all this will help reduce the problem,” Dr Bicaba said. Hunger due to soar in 25 countries Women in Nigeria collect food vouchers as part of a programme to support families struggling under the COVID-19 lockdown. Photo - WFP, Damilola Onafuwa countries, many of them already reeling from the impact of conflict, climate change and economic crisis. The number of acute food insecure people in these at-risk countries could increase from an estimated 149 million pre-COVID-19 to 270 million before the end of the year if life-saving assistance is not provided urgently. Recent estimates also suggest that up to 6,000 children could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months as a result of pandemic-related disruptions to essential health and nutrition services.
News JULY 29 - AUGUST 11 2020 TheTrumpet Page7 Over 10,000 health workers in Africa infected with COVID-19 Continued from Page 1< arise when health personnel are repurposed for COVID-19 response without adequate briefing, or because of heavy workloads which result in fatigue, burnout and possibly not fully applying the standard operating procedures. In many African countries infection prevention and control measures aimed at preventing infections in health facilities are still not fully implemented. When WHO assessed clinics and hospitals across the continent for these measures, only 16% of the nearly 30,000 facilities surveyed had assessment scores above 75%. Many health centres were found to lack the infrastructure necessary to implement key infection prevention measures, or to prevent overcrowding. Only 7.8% (2213) had isolation capacities and just a third had the capacity to triage patients. “One infection among health workers is one too many,” said Dr Moeti. “Doctors, nurses and other health professionals are our mothers, brothers and sisters. They are helping to save lives endangered by COVID-19. We must make sure that they have the equipment, skills and information they need to keep themselves, their patients and colleagues safe.” WHO has been working closely with health ministries to reduce health worker infections since the outbreak began. The Organization has trained more than 50,000 health workers in Africa in infection prevention and control, with plans to train over 200,000 more, as well as providing guidance documents and guidelines on best care practices and the most up-to-date treatment regimes. WHO is also helping to fill gaps in the supply of personal protective equipment. Currently, 41 million items of personal protective equipment are ready to ship from China to cover the needs of 47 African countries. Shipments for an initial set of 23 African countries are planned to start during this weekend. As a result of concerted efforts by WHO and partners, some African countries have managed to reduce health worker infections considerably. For example, two months ago over Adesina completely exonerated 16% of COVID-19 infections in Sierra Leone were among health workers. The figure has now dropped to 9%. Cote d’Ivoire has reduced the proportion of infections among health workers from 6.1% to 1.4%. Scaling up infection prevention and control measures can further reduce infections among health workers. Dr Moeti spoke about health worker infections in Africa during a virtual press conference organized by APO Group. She was joined by Hon Dr Léonie Claudine Lougue, Minister of Health of Burkina Faso; Hon Dr Alpha T. Wurie, Minister of Health and Population of Sierra Leone; and Dr Jemima A. Dennis-Antwi, International Maternal Health & Midwifery Specialist. Continued from Page 1< of ethical misconduct were levelled against Adesina by a group of whistleblowers. The allegations which were reviewed by the Bank’s Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors in March, were described as “frivolous and without merit.” The findings and rulings of the Ethics Committee were subsequently upheld by the apex Bureau of the Board of Governors in May, which cleared Adesina of any wrongdoing. The report of the Independent Review Panel states that it “concurs with the (Ethics) Committee in its findings in respect of all the allegations against the President and finds that they were properly considered and dismissed by the Committee.” The Panel once again vindicates Adesina and states, “It has considered the President’s submissions on their face and finds them consistent with his innocence and to be persuasive.” The conclusions of the Independent Review Panel are decisive and now clear the way for Governors of the Bank to re-elect Adesina to a second five-year term as President during annual meetings of the Bank scheduled for August 25-27. Adesina is a highly decorated and distinguished technocrat and globally-respected development economist. He was awarded the prestigious World Food Prize in 2017 and the Sunhak Peace Prize in 2019 for global leadership in agriculture and for good governance. Since taking over the reins of the Bank in 2015, he has introduced several innovative reforms including a High5 development strategy; a restructuring of the bank including setting up offices in several African nations to get closer to its clients; an Africa Investment Forum that has attracted $79 billion in investment interests into projects in Africa between 2018 and 2019. He successfully led a historic General Capital Increase campaign that culminated in the Bank’s shareholders raising the institution’s capital from $93 billion to $208 billion, in October 2019. In June and July respectively, global credit ratings agencies Standard and Poors and Fitch Ratings both affirmed the ‘AAA’ rating of the Bank, with stable outlook. Several Governors of the Bank speaking off the record, say it is now time to put recent events in the past; provide the Bank’s President with full support; and bolster the Bank’s efforts on Africa’s critical development issues.
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The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 524 (July 29 - August 11 2020)

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