ABDI SULEIMAN, PEMBA
“THERE is no need to send the samples collected in Pemba to Dar es Salaam medical facilities because the equipment installed in the new Pemba public health laboratory have good capacity to detect signs of health and disease, explains the minister for health in Zanzibar”, Nassor Ahmed Mazrui.
I remember an incident when one of the relatives passed away while awaiting for the medical results following the examination which took more than a week before the results came out.
Talking to a mother, whose child passed away, she did not believe that the sample taken from her child before his death was sent to Dar es Salaam. Her believe was that the medical doctors understood that the patient had no survival but were not able to tell her the reality.
This idea is popular among some people in Zanzibar society. I once came across people who believed that it is unethical for a reasonable health professional to reveal the truth about patients’ health status particularly when approaching death.
In that case, these doctors leave you hanging around the hospital proximity while sure that your patient will die soon hiding the truth by scapegoating the delay in receiving the medical results from Dar es Salaam.
But it remains true that the lack of modern medical facilities and gaps in service delivery costed life of some patients who had probably died due to delay in diagnosing their illness.
The complex health crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic left none prepared and it remains a point of reference when talking about boosting the capacity for testing. The initiation of Public Health laboratories in Zanzibar Unguja and Pemba islands is marked as turning point in filling out the gap for emergency alert and response mechanism.
The improvement of the medical facilities minimizes people’s assortment over lack of the services testing for both routine patients and outbreaks and waiting a number of days for results, a thing that inconvenienced the suspects especially of the COVID 19 who included tourists.
Through financial support from the Switzerland Government and technical support from World Health Organization, (WHO), a Public Health Laboratory in Zanzibar main Unguja Island was established at Binguni. The laboratory capacity is expected to be testing 1000 samples per 24 hours shift.
Just as was the case for Unguja, the recent move which some Pemba citizens labelled as ’revolution in health care’ was this month handover ceremony of the molecular laboratory at Pemba Public Health Laboratory located at Wawi, Chake Chake district of the Southern Pemba region.
Apart from COVID 19, the molecular biology facility will test Ebola, monk pox, yellow fever and other cellular molecules samples to discover various diseases.
When the time approached for inspecting the new molecular biological facilities equipment, the invitees were amazed once they stepped in the laboratory.
The laboratory attendant comments before the minister and other invitees on the capacity and the benefits of the facilities equipment left the citizens whispering and looking with amazement and joy smile.
“These medical tools allow us to test samples of various diseases including COVID 19 and get the results within 24 hours. With the effective use and functioning of these tools, we need not send our sample to Dar es Salaam for further examinations and results as the case was”, says Ghanil Mohamed Khatib, the laboratory expert.
Khatib admits that the facilities had been installed at a right time since without a Public Health Laboratory, Zanzibar had to send samples collected from different COVID-19 suspects for testing in Dar es Salaam which is costly and embarrassing for the suspects.
Health Authorities in Zanzibar
During the ceremony, the minister for health in Zanzibar Nassor Ahmed Mazrui assured the citizens that some samples that were required to be tested in the clinical laboratories and other tests that were impossible without improved modern equipment will now be tested in Pemba public health laboratory.
The statement by the minister delighted many poor citizens who had suffered a lot in the previous time when the medical examination, diagnosis and treatment took so long.
In a well-attended event, Mazrui expressed his gratitude to the government and the development partners for collaborating in making the improved and modern testing services in Pemba feasible.
“There is no need to send the samples collected in Pemba to Dar es Salaam medical facilities because the equipment installed in the new Pemba public health laboratory have good capacity to detect signs of health and disease, the minister explains.
“These news facilities installed here conforms to the goals and vision of the incumbent President Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi of strengthening health sector and provision of better medical facilities to the citizens”, added Mazrui.
Mazrui believes that the medical laboratory attendants working in this modern laboratory will keep and maintain the equipment in good working order and effective for longer and serve whenever erupt the disease that undermine the public health.
“We all see the facility equipment are good and modern. It is our role to maintain them for long life to benefit the Zanzibar society and Tanzania in general. Tests of various diseases are now possible and for the sake of health promotion, the accuracy of the tests performed in the laboratory is important,” says the Minister.
The modern laboratory costed 3.5 billion funded by centre for disease control and prevention ( CDC). The project is implemented by Management and Development for Health (MDH) and UNICEF.
The government has committed itself to collaborate with the development partners in promoting health services and in assuring that Pemba is gradually becoming independent in some important services that were not available in the isles for long time ago.
Mazrui sees the U.S CDC financial and technical support as magnificent and exemplary in attempts to prevent and control life-threatening infectious diseases that have been claiming live of people sometimes because of untimely treatment associated with sample testing far away from the island.
“We all know that 40 percent of the Zanzibar income depends on tourism. It is therefore incumbent for our countries to have enhanced health services offered by hospital laboratories that form an integral part of the health system of a country”, Mazrui observed adding that the effectiveness of diagnosis, prevention strategies and treatment partly based on the accuracy of the timely tests performed in the laboratory.
The ministry of Health Director General Dr. Amour Suleiman Mohammed said the laboratory has come to offer the solution for the challenges that have been observed when serious diseases like COVID 19 erupts in our country.
“It had been a giant headache to me when the samples for COVID 19 suspects had to be collected in Pemba for the whole day before they were sent to Dar es Salaam during evenings for diagnostic test and results. Sometimes the patients die without understanding the real cause of the death leaving us knowing not what to do”, says the director.
Dr. Mohammed reveals that this news investment brought us enormous prestige particularly because prior to facility equipment installation, the samples taken by the healthcare provider could be transported to laboratories located somewhere else and it could take up to seven days to receive the results.
“If this laboratory is effectively used, the waiting period for test results will be greatly reduced to only 24 hours”, he insisted.
The Director of Preventive Services in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Salum Slim feels it is proper time for the healthcare officers to use the laboratory effectively for testing the patients during the epidemic outbreak and keep Zanzibar safe. This is quite important especially because according to him, “tourist have been asking about the present health situation of the country once and before they set a foot in the isles”.
The South Pemba Regional Commissioner
The South Pemba Regional Commissioner Mattar Zahor Massoud, reminded Pemba people that the new public health laboratory reflects the implementation of the Zanzibar president Dr. Hussein Mwinyi ultimate goal and policy to strengthen health promotion capacity and disease prevention.
Mattar believes that in the meantime, citizens may have unwavering faith in the government in provision of quality and reliable health services, and to him, it is an end to sample transportation between destinations remote from Pemba hospital sites.
He recognizes the importance of media to health promotion and increasing the health literacy of the community and he calls on them to use their efforts in keeping people aware and knowledgeable of the presence of the new laboratories and the services they offer.
Management and Development for Health (MDH) Organization
The Management and Development for Health (MDH) Organization is in the forefront to address public health priorities as it has been declaring itself.
The executive Director of this local Tanzanian non-profit organization Dr. David Sando, says MDH works in collaboration with the governments of Tanzania in promoting health provision services for infections and no-infection diseases together with maternal health services provision.
He says MDH Tanzania has supported laboratory test facilities in various areas to enable testing the epidemic and endemic outbreak that effect the wide population.
“The introduction of this well-equipped laboratory here in Zanzibar is important first to strengthen Covid 19 testing services, reduce waiting period for test results, promote preventive services of various diseases and monitor epidemic and pandemic events”, he says.
David reiterates that Zanzibar population now reaches 1.8 million with more than 390,000 tourists visiting the isles each year, making it necessary to provide quick health services that everyone has been longing for.
MDH has supported to maintain the patient and human safety tools, purchase of the laboratory testing equipment for prevention from of epidemic diseases like Ebola, monkey pox, yellow fever and other disease causing germs.
Attendants at Pemba Public Health Laboratory
Chief executive officer of Wawi Public Health Laboratory Dr. Said Mohamed Ali, said the laboratory duties including medical examination aim at assisting government to monitor overall health and increase diagnostic services for its people while at their home land, and saving the cost that were incurred when such services were obtained out of Zanzibar.
He called upon the Zanzibar citizens to do regular general health check up to monitor their existing medical conditions and keep them healthier by treating and curing the emerging health complications.
People and Health Stakeholders
Ali Omar Khamis, the resident of Chake Chake, has commended the strengthening of the medical examination laboratory while expressing his hopes that the medical facility will be the major support and liberator for Pemba people who for long time complained of the delayed results of the medical tests they underwent at different medical hospitals.
“This is a testimony that health sector is now growing in Pemba. We witness the presence of modern health buildings and the official inauguration of the laboratory authenticate the good will of the country to promote health condition,” he says.
ends