Amdadul Haque
The number of confirmed cases among doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals is growing alarmingly, posing a challenge to the very handling of the growing number of COVID-19 patients in Bangladesh.
Medical caregivers wearing PPE, masks, and obeying all health guidelines — cannot protect themselves from the virus. An average of 50 doctors, nurses and health workers are being infected with coronavirus every day while treating infected patients, mainly due to low quality of the safety equipment, said Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Secretary General Dr Ehteshamul Haque Chowdhury Dulal.
He said, “Around 540 doctors, 250 are nurses and over 300 are other health workers. Health workers, including doctors and nurses, are suffering from coronavirus due to low quality masks and PPE.”
This time, government general and specialized hospitals have started getting affected by coronavirus. Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other officials and employees of these hospitals are getting infected while providing services to the patients.
Every day, a large number of doctors and nurses and a variety of health workers have to go into quarantine. There is a big crisis rising in maintaining the service with a limited manpower. Patients have to return as there are no doctors in many departments. Others are emotionally broken by the news of colleagues testing coronavirus positive, and can't concentrate on medical services.
Such a scenario has been found in the Government National Heart Institute Hospital, National Orthopedic Hospital and Rehabilitation Institute, National Neuroscience Hospital and Institute, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and several other hospitals in the capital.
Doctors have identified three causes for corona infection in these hospitals, the main reason being patients hiding corona symptoms, and patients without symptoms. In addition, the initial screening of patients with general and special diseases is not done properly, the safety equipment of the hospital health workers is not used properly and on time, and there is a crisis of safety equipment including PPE and masks.
According to the investigation, the biggest outbreaks of coronavirus infection have occurred in the last one week at the National Heart Institute and Hospital and Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital. Of these, 29 doctors, nurses and other health workers were affected by coronavirus at the National Heart Institute and Hospital and 57 doctors, nurses, technologists and ambulance drivers have been infected at Suhrawardy Hospital.
Expert doctors say that doctors, nurses and health workers suffering from coronavirus is a sign of danger in medical services. This will have a major impact on the overall treatment management. Many patients will die without treatment.
A meeting held on Wednesday between the officials of the Department of Health and the representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) in which the safety of doctors was discussed.
Representatives of WHO said that all health workers, including nurses need the same protection as doctors. Everyone must wear the same quality mask and PPE. And PPE cannot be used for more than one day.
Meanwhile, the WHO says that PPE must have a total of five components for adequate protection. These are Gown, Gloves, Face cover (face shield), Glasses that stick to the face to cover the eyes and Mask. One user has to wear and open PPE with utmost care. This is because PPE can often become contaminated through this process.
However, health workers have also complained about the quality of PPE being provided to them. It's more like a raincoat rather than a proper PPE, Anis Ahmed, a physician who works with one of the government hospitals designated to treat COVID-19 patients, told the media.
Meerjady Sabrina Flora, director of the Bangladesh government's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, said, it's not our unique problem healthcare workers across the world are facing an acute crisis of PPE. We are trying to outsource quality PPE from different places. Several private organisations have come forward to donate PPE.
Once infected with coronavirus, the doctors are quarantined and the hospital ward where they worked is shut as a safety measure.
The main problem healthcare workers in Bangladesh are facing is that patients are concealing their medical symptoms and related information to avoid stigma, social isolation or quarantine. Many people believe that if they get infected, their houses will be locked down and their family members will be treated negatively.
Besides, the designated hospitals for treating coronavirus patients are full to their capacity, forcing people displaying coronavirus-like symptoms to flock to public and private hospitals.
Since those hospitals are not treating COVID-19 patients, people are trying to get treatment thereby hiding their symptoms.
In a recent news briefing, Bangladesh's Minister of Health Zahid Maleque said, It is a big problem that many people carrying the symptoms of COVID-19 are concealing information and showing little interest in undergoing tests.
That is why many of our doctors and health workers are getting infected with the virus. Such a tendency is very alarming, he said.
Faisal Islam Fahim, a medical officer at Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital in Barisal District, said that about 150 doctors of his hospital were forced to go into quarantine after two of them were found to be infected. The two doctors had handled a male patient who hid his symptoms to avoid quarantine.
The patient lied about respiratory problems and pain in his throat and got admitted in the hospital. Two internee doctors handled him and grew suspicious once the patient showed symptoms. Later he was found to be COVID-19 positive. But the damage had been done by then, said Fahim.