The gynecologist and congolese Nobel peace Prize laureate Denis Mukwege, announced Wednesday, June 10, to have resigned from his functions in instances of struggle against the spread of the new coronavirus in the province of South-Kivu and has denounced the shortcomings. The governor of South Kivu had appointed him, on 30 march, president and vice-president of two official bodies set up to organize the response to the pandemic Covid-19 in the eastern province of the DRC.
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major handicaps
“We are […] at the beginning of an exponential curve epidemiological and we can’t apply a strategy that is only to be preventive,” says in a press release Dr. Mukwege, awarded the Nobel Peace prize, 2018 for the care it provides to women victims of sexual violence in the democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Dr. Mukwege stressed in particular the lack of testing available in the province and the non-respect of preventive measures. It should be ” more than two weeks to receive the results of the samples sent to […] Kinshasa “, which represents ” a major handicap to our strategy based on test, identify, isolate and treat “.
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A preventive strategy difficult to implement
He also points to a series of problems that decreased the effectiveness of our strategy ” : “A relaxation of preventive measures for our population, a denial of reality, the impossibility of enforcing the measures, barriers, the porosity of our borders with the massive return of thousands of compatriots from neighbouring countries without being quarantined. “
Dr. Mukwege, also denounces the ” weaknesses and organizational coherence between the different teams responsible for the response to the pandemic in the South-Kivu “. The DRC has said, since march 10, 4 390 infections with the novel coronavirus, including 3 980 in Kinshasa and 89 in South Kivu, for a total of 96 deaths.
Denis Mukwege, had argued in mid-April, for a “containment part of the elderly over 60 years of age” and “the mandatory wearing of a mask for all the world” in order to break the chain of transmission of the new coronavirus.
on may 9, The doctor had called for “a supply of emergency tests, before the onset of the exponential curve of the epidemic” of the new coronavirus. As a result, “I decided to resign […] to devote myself completely to my responsibilities and medical care for this influx of patients at the Panzi hospital, which he founded in Bukavu, capital of Sud-Kivu, says Dr Mukwege, nicknamed” the man who repairs women “.
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