MEDICAL and Public Health Experts have called on Zimbabweans to take up vaccination as a measure to prevent the adverse effects of the oncoming Fourth Wave which has already been reported in some parts of the world including East Africa.
By Michael Gwarisa
The call comes hot on the heels of a third wave which caused thousands of deaths and infections during the month of July in Zimbabwe. According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), daily cases were now on a downward trend even though causalities are still high.
In an interview with HealthTimes, World Health Organization (WHO) Zimbabwe COVID-19 Team Leader, Dr Lincoln Charimari said even though a fourth wave was inevitable, vaccination would prevent severe cases and deaths.
Vaccination, if given to more than 70% of targeted population will protect against wider spread of infection. We will NOT avoid a 4th wave should it come but will be protected against large numbers of people getting severely sick, being hospitalized or dying from the infection,” said Dr Charimari.
He added that the overall numbers of those of infected may also come down as a result of vaccination and there is need to scale up information dissemination to ensure citizens make informed decisions around which vaccinations.
Speaking on the possibility of Zimbabwe rolling vaccine boosters, Dr Charimari said there wasn’t need for such at the moment.
“Boosters are not yet a route to take because evidence of their effectiveness is still put together. However please take serious note that boosters will potentially lead to entrenchment of vaccine nationalism by the wealthy countries and widening of global vaccine inequalities between the rich and the poor countries. What we need is for available vaccines to be made available to poor countries first before boosters can be introduced.”
Meanwhile, Public Health Expert and Epidemiologist, Dr Grant Murewanhema said vaccination has and is the best public health intervention to deal with the spread, morbidity and mortality associated with rapidly spreading infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
“The last two effects are mainly realised at individual level, while dealing with the spread is dependent on the proportion of the population vaccinated. This is why we need to fully vaccinate a percentage of the population that is large enough to give us herd immunity, a prospect which we are still far from reaching. For now, less than 10% of the population is fully vaccinated, though we have made significant strides as a country, and we are ahead of the majority of our African counterparts,” said Dr Grant.
He added further waves of COVID-19 were inevitable and there was need to prepare for them in two major ways.
“Firstly we have to vaccinate at least 60% of the population by the onset of the rain season, the time where we anticipate that we may have another wave, and secondly we need to build public health sector capacity and resilience to make sure that we absorb shocks that may come onto the health system with further waves as we try to preserve human lives.
“Vaccination will definitely therefore play a massive role in reducing the impact of further waves of COVID-19 in terms of reducing deaths and strains on the healthcare system. This calls upon the government to accelerate the vaccination by procuring more vaccines as a matter of urgency, procuring the recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccines, deal with logistical issues to make sure that the whole of Zimbabwe is reached and make sure the vulnerable are protected.”
He also said the national vaccination program must not be concentrated just in the major cities, but must also be fairly extended into the marginalized areas.
