Frontline fighters
Doctors cannot treat patients if they themselves fall sick.
As the Covid-19 cases top 500 and the country starts realising the true devastating potential this highly contagious virus has, concerns have been raised by one important sector — the medical and paramedical staff that is leading the fight against the novel virus. Many of these frontline soldiers have expressed concerns that they could themselves join the virus-stricken patients they have been striving to cure. Members of the Young Doctors Association (YDA) and the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Employees Association as well as medics at hospitals in Quetta have all demanded that they be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks, gloves and other critical gear — besides hand sanitizers and soaps — in sufficient quantity so that they could continue to perform their critical work.
While healthcare authorities insist that sufficient stocks of critical gear are available in the country, panic buying has ensured that they are currently unavailable in stores. Several hospitals have reported an acute shortage of face masks, forcing the authorities concerned to restrict the supply of such equipment to the personnel who are serving in isolation wards and quarantine zones in various parts of the country. Limiting the provision of PPE to those who are brave and responsible enough to perform duties in isolation wards also puts at risk the hundreds of staff who work at other wings in hospitals as well as the thousands of patients who stream into the outpatient departments (OPDs) of public-sector hospitals daily.
The medics on this critical duty have also been demanding of the government to provide them with the shuhada (martyrs) package should they contract COVID-19 while treating patients. The contagious and lethal nature of the virus means that this is not a far-fetched though. After all two doctors, who were treating a critical COVID-19 patient at PIMS, are reported to have been isolated. There were also reports that the doctor who first diagnosed the 50-year-old Mardan man dying of coronavirus has also contracted the infection. The K-P health department has, however, refuted the reports as mere rumours. Like brave foot soldiers, these medics are out to serve, knowing full well that they can lose their lives in this service of mankind. They, thus, truly deserve the shuhada package. After all, we have seen these frontline soldiers suffer in China, Iran and Europe.
In China, for instance, of more than a hundred thousand people infected, around 3,400 are health professionals. In Wuhan alone, the Chinese city where the virus first spread at a mass level, at least 46 medical practitioners died from the virus. Some of them were in their 20s and 30s, though the virus has been deadlier for older people. And in case of Italy, at least 2,629 healthcare workers — roughly 8.3 per cent of all cases in the country — have contracted the deadly infection because of working with inadequate equipment or being exposed to asymptomatic carriers, according to official figures. And of them, 13 have already died.
While we applaud the government for making a swift move in their bid to flatten the curve much faster than in some western countries, it must step up and address the genuine demands of the medical staff. Doctors cannot treat patients if they themselves fall sick. If those who are supposed to treat the sick in this pandemic keep falling sick as well, pretty soon we will not have anyone to treat this virus.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2020.
While healthcare authorities insist that sufficient stocks of critical gear are available in the country, panic buying has ensured that they are currently unavailable in stores. Several hospitals have reported an acute shortage of face masks, forcing the authorities concerned to restrict the supply of such equipment to the personnel who are serving in isolation wards and quarantine zones in various parts of the country. Limiting the provision of PPE to those who are brave and responsible enough to perform duties in isolation wards also puts at risk the hundreds of staff who work at other wings in hospitals as well as the thousands of patients who stream into the outpatient departments (OPDs) of public-sector hospitals daily.
The medics on this critical duty have also been demanding of the government to provide them with the shuhada (martyrs) package should they contract COVID-19 while treating patients. The contagious and lethal nature of the virus means that this is not a far-fetched though. After all two doctors, who were treating a critical COVID-19 patient at PIMS, are reported to have been isolated. There were also reports that the doctor who first diagnosed the 50-year-old Mardan man dying of coronavirus has also contracted the infection. The K-P health department has, however, refuted the reports as mere rumours. Like brave foot soldiers, these medics are out to serve, knowing full well that they can lose their lives in this service of mankind. They, thus, truly deserve the shuhada package. After all, we have seen these frontline soldiers suffer in China, Iran and Europe.
In China, for instance, of more than a hundred thousand people infected, around 3,400 are health professionals. In Wuhan alone, the Chinese city where the virus first spread at a mass level, at least 46 medical practitioners died from the virus. Some of them were in their 20s and 30s, though the virus has been deadlier for older people. And in case of Italy, at least 2,629 healthcare workers — roughly 8.3 per cent of all cases in the country — have contracted the deadly infection because of working with inadequate equipment or being exposed to asymptomatic carriers, according to official figures. And of them, 13 have already died.
While we applaud the government for making a swift move in their bid to flatten the curve much faster than in some western countries, it must step up and address the genuine demands of the medical staff. Doctors cannot treat patients if they themselves fall sick. If those who are supposed to treat the sick in this pandemic keep falling sick as well, pretty soon we will not have anyone to treat this virus.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 22nd, 2020.