Zimbabwe intends to introduce legislation that would make it a criminal offense for other countries to recruit health workers from its workforce. This has resulted due to the current brain drain among nurses and doctors in the country. More than 4,000 nurses and doctors have left Zimbabwe since February 2021, seeking better working conditions abroad, with the UK’s National Health Service being a popular destination.

However, the UK halted the recruitment of Zimbabwean health workers last month after the country was placed on the World Health Organisation’s red list due to serious health personnel challenges. Having a nation placed on the red list signifies that it is facing a significant shortage of health workers. According to the Zimbabwe Medical Association, the country has only 3,500 doctors to serve a population of fifteen million people.

The Vice-President and Health Minister, Constantino Chiwenga, likened the drain of healthcare professionals to human trafficking. He intends to impose stiffer penalties on those who rob the nation of its human capital, which the government considers a crime against humanity and a violation of human rights. The current economic crisis in Zimbabwe with inflation and poor salaries has made the profession unattractive, thus seeking greener pastures in other countries, mostly the United Kingdom.

According to reports by Shingai Nyoka of BBC, health clinics in Zimbabwe are facing a crisis as a significant number of their nurses are leaving for better opportunities outside the country mostly in the United Kingdom.

Perpetua Kaseke, the acting Chief Nursing Officer for the authorities in the capital, Harare, told Nyoka that most of her clinics were operating at 50% capacity as most of them have left to the UK or Ireland, others to Zimbabwe’s neighboring countries. Most nurses in Zimbabwe are underpaid and can barely afford rent and other needs. They are now fed up.

According to Zimbabwe’s State Health Service Board, over 2,200 medical personnel left its services last year alone of which 900 of them were nurses.

Nyoka spoke to one nurse who had left for the United Kingdom since last July and he indicated that he now earns about 10 times what he did back in Zimbabwe and the money he sends back goes a long way. He can now afford to send his children to boarding school and support other family members in need.

Coronaviruses (CoV) are a family of viruses that causes mild to severe illnesses varying from the common cold to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). COVID-19 is the disease caused by the new coronavirus that emerged in China in December last year. [appbox googleplay screenshots com.nursinginghana.licensurequizgame] The incubation period of the virus ranges from 1-12.5 days (median 5-6 days). In this period, the infected person may not show any symptoms. The virus is mainly transmitted through droplets sprayed by affected individuals, contact with patient respiratory secretions, contaminated surfaces and equipment.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

Early Stage signs and symptoms include: Fever above 38^oC combined with respiratory symptoms including:

• Cough
• Shortness of breath
• Runny nose
• Weakness
• Malaise
• Nausea/vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Headache

Advanced Stage signs include all the earlier symptoms with

• Pneumonia
• Bronchitis

NOTE: Having the symptoms above does not mean you have coronavirus disease unless it is laboratory confirmed. [appbox googleplay screenshots com.nursinginghana.licensurequizgame] References Lauer, S. A., Grantz, K. H., Bi, Q., Jones, F. K., Zheng, Q., Meredith, H. R., … Lessler, J. (2020). The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Annals of Internal Medicine. doi: 10.7326/m20-0504