Kai KupferschmidtScience's COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.On 6 January, gastroenterologist Leolin Katsidzira received a troubling message from his colleague James Gita Hakim, a heart specialist and noted HIV/AIDS researcher.
Hakim, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Zimbabwe, had fallen sick and had tested positive for COVID-19.
He was admitted to a hospital in Harare 10 days later and moved to an intensive care unit (ICU) after his condition deteriorated.
He died on 26 January.It is a crushing loss to Zimbabwean medicine, Katsidzira says. “Don’t forget: We have had a huge brain drain.