Times Of Swaziland: EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC

EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC
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By Khulile Thwala on 03/07/2020 00:52:00


THE unusual ‘disappearance’ of 500 pregnant women in the country was
highlighted in a report by the UNFPA last week. In this report, which was
presented by the UNFPA acting country coordinator, she mentioned how the
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic include 500 pregnant women being
unaccounted for at local health centres in the past approximately three to four
months. Unfortunately, this is not the only health division that might be
experiencing these kinds of anomalies. Health is also not the only sector that
might be overlooked due to the pandemic.
Things
Has anyone stopped to perhaps think about the number of ‘things’ that have
been left on the back burner due to the outbreak of the coronavirus? This is
because numerous entities and issues have been sidelined and are not getting as
much attention as prior to this scourge. Let’s take for instance the case of
the 500 women, who have probably not been able to access prenatal care due to
fear of being exposed to the virus at their local health facility or being
restricted by the previously applied lockdown regulations.
Some would even argue that their inability to attend their monthly check-ups
stems from assuming they wouldn’t be assisted at their local health centre due
to the priority given to coronavirus related issues. These issues include the
boycotting by healthcare workers due to unavailability of PPE and the regulation
of wearing masks being mandatory yet this might induce difficulty in breathing,
more especially among pregnant women.
Risky
Unfortunately, lack of prenatal care can be quite risky, as it might result in
infant mortality or infant impairment, either physical or mental. It has also
been previously reported that the country is experiencing a medical drug
shortage, therefore, further exacerbating medical issues that have been
supposedly sidelined due to the prioritisation of COVID-19. The other
consequence of this pandemic is the looming surge in HIV/AIDS infections.
According to a UNAIDS article published online on May 11, 2020, there is a high
possibility that all the efforts made to combat HIV/AIDS over the years might be
sacrificed to the fight against COVID-19. However, UNAIDS does maintain that
COVID-19 shouldn’t be an excuse to divert investment from HIV.
There have also been fears and, well, speculation, that there might be a looming
surge in teenage pregnancies as a consequence of the pandemic. This is because
the continued closure of schools might have resulted in laxity on the teens’
part. Most teenagers are roaming streets aimlessly and ‘chilling’ on street
corners without any care in the world.
Consequence
The inevitable consequence of this continued idle state is the blossoming of
love relationships, and eventually unwarranted pregnancies. These effects of
COVID-19 should be our focal points going forward, to ensure they don’t become
irrepressible. It is easy to prioritise one thing simply because it has become,
I quote, “the talk of the town.” However, we need to exercise vigilance in
our approach and be able to identify things from a bird’s eye view, to avoid a
total collapse in our internal as well as external systems.
The COVID-19 fight is unfortunately not the only fight we are faced with now;
therefore the attention definitely has to be divided accordingly. It is easy to
point out what is wrong than it is what is right; therefore, to avoid negative
feedback in our COVID-19 approach we need to steer away from assessing it
singularly. This is because most will rate the country’s approach based on all
the other challenges the country purportedly has, therefore rendering our
COVID-19 approach unsatisfactory.