Tanzania’s government has suspended a health expert for allegedly violating the law by issuing a statement about claims of an epidemic in the country’s south.
Tanzania’s health minister, Dorothy Gwajima, instructed authorities to suspend Felista Kisandu, the chief medical officer in the Chunya district of the Mbeya Region.
Gwajima says Dr. Kisandu contravened the Public Health Act of 2019 that provides guidelines on announcing the emergence of disease outbreaks.
On Sunday Dr. Kisandu said an unidentified infection, which caused people to experience nausea and vomiting of blood, plagued a single administrative ward of Ifumbo, triggering panic among local residents.
“This problem has not affected the whole Chunya district. Only in the Ifumbo ward. The symptoms were that they came in vomiting blood.”
But as a result of that statement, the Health Minister says she has ordered the appointing authority to immediately suspend Dr. Kisandu, to pave the way for an investigation.
According to the minister, there is no proven case of any disease outbreak in Ifumbo, and she insists there is no public health disaster there.
On Sunday, it was reported by Ifumbo ward leader, Weston Mpyila, that 15 people died of the infection while more than 50 others were hospitalised.
According to the health minister, a team of medical experts has been dispatched to investigate the claims.
Health Minister Gwajima says the experts have interviewed local residents and found there were no sudden deaths.
Although the government has ruled out the presence of an alleged outbreak.
Villagers say records show that a similar disease accompanied by high fever and vomiting sickened people in the region known for gold production in 2018. -Reporting by Daniel Kijo in Dar es salaam
