As the potential risk of M-pox lurks, our staff reporters BARBARA KACHINANGWA and ALLAN NYASULU return to centres for infectious diseases where a tale of two worlds noiselessly unfolds, a story of neglect that unfolds in plain sight and innovation in action.
In August 2017, Atupele Muluzi, then minister of Health, opened the Kameza Isolation Centre for highly infectious diseases amid the world’s deadliest Ebola virus outbreak across Africa.
The roadside isolation centre in Blantyre City proclaimed Malawi’s preparedness for the virus that killed over 11 300 people between 2014 and 2016.
Malawi recorded zero cases, but healthcare authorities repurposed the centre following the confirmation of the country’s first Covid-19 case in April 2020. The government spent at least K85 million to turn the Kameza facility into a Covid isolation camp.
Amid Covid-19 waves, hundreds were seen queuing to deliver samples for laboratory tests.
The facility helped lessen pressure on the country’s overwhelmed healthcare system, forcing authorities to turn Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe and Zomba State House into Covid-19 hospitals.
However, it was suddenly abandoned following steep declines in Covid-19 cases.
Its sorry state infuriates Mayamiko Nkhoma, a 35-year-old mother from Mtambasale near Kameza who passes the facility with a two-year-old baby on her back on the way to Chilaweni Health Centre.
“I walk over eight kilometres to get the services my child and I need. Instead of abandoning the Kameza facility, the government could have utilised it to bring health services closer to us, including under-five clinics and treatment for common illnesses,” she says.
Nkhoma wonders why the Ministry of Health has allowed the facility to rust in disuse.
“We can do better,” she says. “It can bring essential services closer to surrounding communities,” she says.
The government constructed the centre in 2015 with support from the World Health Organisation and the World Bank. There is a similar facility at Mzuzu Central Hospital (MCH).
The Mzuzu facility looks intact and has been turned into a ward for the care of women with pregnancy-related conditions.
“We temporarily use the infectious disease centre to alleviate hospital congestion for gynaecological patients. However, we are prepared for the facility to revert to its original purpose if another disease outbreak occurs,” says MCH spokesperson Arnold Kayira.
He says the strategic construction of the isolation centre within the hospital has paid off.
However, its agemate at Kameza is a heart-rending tale of public investment at risk of going to waste following the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency.
It was neglected once the global outbreak subsided. It now lies idle and in disrepair, awaiting another public health crisis.
A security guard on site says thieves and vandals frequently raid the facility for life-saving props.
“One day, they overpowered me and stole pipes, taps and equipment,” he says.
This dismays village head Mtambasale of the area.
“Should we wait for another emergency to utilise this facility?” he asks. “It is costly to refurbish an abandoned facility. We can keep it in shape by using it to provide routine services for pregnant women, sexually active young people and under-five children.”
Government pledged to ensure everyone walks less than five kilometres to get the health services they need. The Universal Health Coverage policy seeks to ensure everyone gets life-saving services closer to where they live and without financial hardship.
Health rights activist Maziko Matemba says the Ministry of Health and its policymakers in Blantyre should learn from Mzuzu Central Hospital to save the rusty Kameza Isolation Centre.
He states: “It’s unfortunate to see the facility abandoned while women walk long distances for medical care that could be provided at the camp to ease pressure on nearby health centres,” he states.
Matemba urges government to repurpose the Kameza facility for the good of surrounding communities.
“Maintaining the camps for pandemic use while it is non-functional burdens the government with unnecessary costs,” he warns. “If the facility were in use, it would only require minor renovations to resume its original purpose during pandemics.”
When asked, Blantyre director of health and social services Gift Kawalazira hinted at the plans to convert the facility into an under-five clinic to ease the burden on nearby health facilities.
“The facility is not abandoned. Soon it will be operational as an under-five clinic, but the [potential] Mpox outbreak is holding the plans back,” he says.
Still, Kameza residents and surrounding communities demand to know why government abandons the facility between outbreaks.
Nkhoma laments: “As I pass the centre on the way to distant clinics, I wonder why it’s being left to decay when it can offer under-five services and spare me the long journey.
“A return trip to Chilaweni costs K4 000. I can use the money to buy food with the worsening hunger caused by drought. I often have to walk. I sometimes miss hospital appointments.”
