By Patricia Kapulula, MANA
Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Health (MoH) in partnership with the US Centre for Disease Control and Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) has embarked on a telephonic survey that will ascertain the number of people who might have symptoms related to flu or Covid-19.
In the survey, EGPAF has recruited a team of nurses who will be randomly calling individuals to assess how many people might have symptoms related to Covid-19.
MoH Department of HIV and AIDS Deputy Director Dr Thokozani Kaluwa told the media in Lilongwe on Thursday that the pandemic is increasing making it impossible to test everybody who needs to be tested hence the importance of the survey.
He said the survey supplements government’s efforts of Covid-19 services in a way that it will be able to know where infections are occurring thereby channel resources to that area.
“We need to know where the impact of the pandemic is most. It is crucial that we can monitor this pandemic in this way by asking participants into the study to let us know if they have had symptoms of illnesses that are characteristic of Covid,” he said.
He said as the pandemic grows it is anticipated that there will be trends and as such there is need to notice where the increase is happening and be able to make judgments based on those trends.
EGPAF Country Director, Veena Sampathkumar described the survey as important saying it will ensure that those with Covid related symptoms have access to care and support.
She said once such people have been identifies, Ministry of Health will figure out how to support such communities.
“Responses we will get from the participants to the survey will enable us to give guidance to the Ministry of Health on a particular area,” she said.
She said Covid-19 requires a multi sectoral and multi pronged response hence the organisation’s contribution to the efforts will support the Ministry to prioritise the resources and ensure a successful response to the pandemic.
The six month telephonic based survey is expected to reach 56, 000 people who are 18 and above in the general population and another 28, 000 people living with HIV.
For the general population, the survey will conducted by trained nurses using phones from randomly generated numbers and for those targeting people living with HIV expert clients will conduct interviews based on randomly selected phone numbers for existing database of people living with HIV from health facilities that Ministry of Health and EGPAF supports in Mchinji, Dedza, Ntcheu, Neno, Mwanza, Zomba, Chiradzulu, Blantyre and Thyolo districts.
The telephonic survey which is meant to identify issues related to Covid-19 is targeting over 56, 000 people across Malawi who will randomly be called.
