A ZAMBIAN Medical Doctor and an international health systems management specialist, Lwipa Puma has advised the Ministry of health to find a way of distinguishing the Zambian common human coronavirus commonly known as “ Icinfine “ from the new one being called to avoid making wrong decisions on the pandemic.
Dr Puma says Zambia has lived with common human coronavirus for a long time without many difficulties though admittedly, it has caused pneumonia and deaths in few cases even before Covid-19.
There is a possibility the Covid-19 tests the country is using could be picking common human coronavirus, locally known as icifine as positive, thus making authorities make wrong decisions by believing it was Covid-19.
Dr Puma, who was a Deputy minister of Health, explains on his WhatsApp blog that some causes of common cold fall in the category of common human coronavirus which causes mild to moderate upper respiratory tract infection with which most people suffer from and not actual Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Dr Puma has advised government to maintain voluntary vaccination of citizens as the move will allow medical personnel to study what is happening to the vaccinated and unvaccinated so that they can make an informed locally generated decision.
-ZANIS
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