Over 20 doctors, many health workers infected in Bangladesh

 

 

 

Ahammad Foyez: Over 20 doctors and a number of health service providers, including nurses, have been infected with the novel coronavirus in the country over the past 21 days. Bangladesh Medical Association secretary general M Ehteshamul Huq Choudhury told that a good number of physicians contracted the COVID-19 virus.

Without disclosing the number of infected physicians, he said that the figure would be not less than 20 and most of them were now recovering. He said that physicians were trying to give the highest possible service to people and they wanted that people should stay at home in the prevailing situation.

Chief coordinator of Bangladesh Doctors’ Forum Nirupam Das on Saturday tol that at least 29 physicians and over 55 other health service providers in Bangladesh were infected with the novel coronavirus in the past 21 days.

Of the infected physicians, there were at least one medical college professor and a civil surgeon, he said.Of the 29 physicians, 21 are from various public and private hospitals and medical colleges in Dhaka, three from Narayanganj, and one each is from Sylhet, Chuadanga, Nilphamari, Kishoreganj and Noakhali.

He said that at least 10 of the Dhaka’s 21 affected physicians were from government hospitals and the rest 11 from private hospitals and clinics. Of the physicians suffering, three are now in intensive care units with one of them in a critical condition, Nirupam Das said.

He said that the data was updated by the BDF as of April 10 and the first infected physician was detected on March 22 Addressing an online press conference on Saturday health minister Zahid Maleque said that some physicians, nurses, army personnel, members of police and journalists were infected with the COVID-19 virus.

The BDF coordinator noted that the number of infected physicians and health service providers was increasing as many patients got admitted to hospitals hiding their condition details as well as travel history. He said that the medicine ward of Abdul Maleque Medical College Hospital in Noakhali was locked down on Saturday as a patient in the ward was found coronavirus-positive.

The patient got admitted to the ward hiding his travel history and actual complications but the authorities later found that he came back to Bangladesh from Italy just a few days ago. Mentioning that the government has meanwhile provided enough personal protective equipment to the government hospitals, he resented the lack of the item at the private facilities.

There are about 60,000 physicians working at the private hospitals, clinics and medical colleges but neither their owners nor the government has provided the necessary PPE for those practitioners, he said. He further said that there still existed some loopholes in the treatment process as the general unit and the flue unit were yet to be separated at most hospitals.

He urged the authorities to ensure PPE for all the physicians engaged in providing treatment to coronavirus patents. According to the Directorate General of Health Services, the deaths from the COVID-19 rose to 30 and the number of infected people identified hit 482 till Saturday.

Bangladesh confirmed its first coronavirus infections on March 8 and the first death from the infection on March 18.

Courtasy by New Age

Dhaka, April 12 (campuslive24.com)//Az

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