Special Correspondent :
A growing number of medics – doctors, nurses and staff – working in hospitals are getting infected with coronavirus across the country raising concern over the care of caregivers.
According to the Doctors’ Forum data, a total of 350 doctors have been so far diagnosed with coronavirus infection.
Of them, 274 in Dhaka Division, 33 in Mymensingh Division, 12 in Chattagram division, seven in Khulna, nine in Barishal, three in Rangpur and 13 in other districts.
Most of them were exposed to the novel coronavirus by patients who took treatment in the hospitals hiding corona illness.
In BIRDEM Cardiac Hospital, more than 13 doctors have been confirmed for having contacted with the virus. Later, 88 more medical staff of the hospital have been put in quarantine.
On April 14, a heart patient was brought to the Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital’s CCU in a critical condition. However, observing his other symptoms, the on-duty doctor wanted to know whether the patient is infected with Covid-19. But the relatives of the patient hid the information to get quick treatment first.
However, the patient admitted that he is corona positive at 8.00pm. The hospital authority locked the CCU (Coronary Care Unit) of the hospital down first, then the organ transplant unit of the hospital locked down.
“It was not possible to save the patient, but 13 doctors have already contacted with corona and 88 doctors, nurshes and health staff have been sent in the quarantine, and the CCU is still closed,” an official of the hospital told The New Nation ysterday.
Such examples are growing day by day. So far, 41 health workers, including 23 doctors, have been infected with corona at Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital due to camouflage of patient information, said the Hospital’s Director Brigadier General Kazi Rashid Un Nabi.
Similarly, 22 doctors have contracted with Covid-19 at Azgar Ali Hospital in Old Dhaka. Thirty more staff of the hospital have also infected with coronavirus, sources said.
At the same time, 18 doctors were infected with the virus at Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital and 25 health workers, including six doctors, have been infected at the capital’s BRB hospital.
Prof. Uttam Kumar Barua, Director of the Suhrawardy Hospital said patients are hiding information in general hospitals and doctors are not always working with full-protective gears at the non-covid hospitals that they do at Covid Hospital.
“Doctors are being infected for hiding the information by patients, but they are also geeting infected even after wearing personal protective equipment or PPE. So, concealing patient’s info is not the only reason for doctors to be infected,” said Dr. Nirupam Das, BDF Chief Coordinator of Bangladesh Doctors’ Forum.
He said faulty PPE and mishandling and misuse of protective equipment are the main reasons for the corona infection of such a large number of doctors.
According to the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), a total of 660 medics have been tested Covid-19 positive since the first cases were reported on March 8.
It means some 11 per cent of the infected people are health professionals,” a statement quoted BMA Secretary General Ehteshamul Huq Chowdhury.
According to the BMA, a total of 295 doctors, 116 nurses and 249 other healthcare workers have been so far infected.
Commenting on the issue, BMA Secretary General Dr. Ihteshamul Haque Chowdhury said, “At the very beginning of the outbreak we mishandled the situation that cuased trouble. Besides, doctors and helath workers were not trained properly how to handle the patients. At the same time, we could not provide good quality of PPE and other protective gears to them. Finally, poor hospital management also exposed the medics.”
Dr. Ihteshamul Haque said the hospital had no instructions on how to handle these patients, All the patients were handled by all the doctors – the patients themselves did not know or hid who were positive and thus the doctors were affected.
When asked, Chief Executive Officer of Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital and Senior Consultant of the Department of Cardiology Prof. Dr. MA Rashid said, “Our doctors got infected from ‘unknow source.’ PPEs that the physicians used were collected from different sources, and those were not were recommended or correctly-designated. Doctors did nnot have masks also.
Public health expert Lelin Chowdhury said the government has no guidelines for the use of health manpower. The guideline on how many doctors will be in the front row, the second and the third row were needed to be formulated at the beginning, but it has not been done yet.
Rejecting the reports of substanrad PPEs, he said, “Patients are not always giving the real case history. So, there have been wrong decisions many times, and these are the reasons why so many health workers, including doctors, are being affected.”
Lelin Chowdhury urged the authorities to ensure proper safety and care of the ‘caregivers,’ including doctors and support saff, to effectively fight againt the deadly pandemic which already clamed over two lakh people across the world.
