Rumphi District Hospital registers First Covid-19 Death

Rumphi District Hospital has registered first Covid-19 death three weeks after the district diagnosed first two Coronavirus cases, hospital officials confirmed Thursday.

Rumphi Director of Health and Social Services, Dr. Stephen Macheso, said the deceased had come from Bwengu in Mzimba North to seek further treatment at the facility which is the nearest referral hospital in the area.

“We have registered a [first] Covid-19 death. This person came in our isolation unit yester night (Wednesday) and died whilst our team was initiating treatment for him,” said Dr. Macheso in his brief statement to Public Health Emergency Management Committee (PHEMIC).

So far the district medical personnel have conducted a total of 114 Covid-19 tests out of which 30 turned positive.

As of Thursday the district had 22 active cases with one death and seven recoveries.

Epidemiologist at Rumphi District Hospital, Adams Chilongo, said the hospital started diagnosing Covid-19 cases on 25th June and that most of the patients are aged between 40 and 50.

“It has been discovered that most of the infections that have occurred in our case are in the age band of 40 -50 years. This is in sharp contrast with the situation elsewhere in the world where most of those that fell prey to the pandemic were in the age range of 70 and above,” he said.

He said 60percent of the patients are male.

“The other interesting aspect of the disease is that men have registered more cases in terms of infection in comparison with women. From the small sample of patients we have tested we have discovered that 60 per cent are men and the remaining percentage is women,” he said.

He also said that most of those that have tested positive are those that hardly stay at home and are involved in employment that require regular travelling or are involved in business activities which rendered them to regular public exposure.

Chilongo emphasised on the need for residents in the district to observe precautionary measures like observing social distance, wearing face masks, regularly washing hands and using sanitizers as advised by health officials.

He said people need to take the pandemic seriously as the tests carried out are a representation of a small minority of 200,000 plus of the district’s population.

He attributed the acceleration rate of the infection in the district to non adherence of the precautionary measures as advised by the health officials and as well as public denial on the existence of the pandemic.

“The current state of the pandemic would be a tip of the iceberg on the basis that we have obtained a result from the tiny sample of the population of the district which is two hundred thousand plus.

“But if we would go ballistic and started conducting tests on every Jim and Jack it would be not surprising to have a soaring rate of infection,” he said.
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