The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) on Sunday said it was disturbed by the death of medical doctors as a result of COVID-19, saying it would in January write the Federal Government on the need to train health workers in infection prevention.
The NMA President, Professor Innocent Ujah, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in Makurdi, while reacting to the death of 20 medical doctors within one week as a result of COVID-19.
Ujah said this as the President, National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Abdulrafiu Adeniji, asked the Federal Government to ban flights from countries with new variants of COVID-19.
Also on Sunday, the team lead, the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada treatment centre, Dr Yunusa Thairu, raised the alarm that 22 coronavirus patients out of 86 on admission at various treatment centres in the Federal Capital Territory were in critical conditions.
Thairu, who called on government to assist health workers, said the 22 critically ill patients were on oxygen.
Recall that the Federal Government last week said the country had entered the second wave of coronavirus and strongly advised Nigerians to adhere to COVID-19 preventive measures.
Also, following reports of a likely spread of a deadlier strain of COVID-19 from the United Kingdom and South Africa, on Thursday the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 imposed fresh requirements on passengers from the two countries.
According to the PTF, the requirements include opening of registers for passengers from the UK and South Africa.
However, there were fears on Friday when the Chairman of the FCT chapter of the NMA, Dr Enema Amodu, at a press conference, said 20 doctors across the country had died of the virus in the last one week.
Expressing concern about the death of the doctors, the NMA president, in the interview, said, “Let me just say that even if it is one doctor, that died of COVID-19 in the process of providing service to the nation to prevent death, to us it is sad. No doctor should die providing services for the nation.”
Ujah said the association would write the Ministry of Health and the PTF to support the training of medical doctors.
Ujah said the medical doctors could have contracted the virus from patients they treated. This, he said, explained the insistence of the NMA that doctors must be trained in disease prevention and control.
He called on government to provide personal protective equipment, running water, soap and gloves for doctors and other health workers.
The NMA president stated, “Let me plead that we need to be protected by having training among our people. Younger doctors are coming up and COVID-19, we don’t know when it will end or the extent it can go. The only thing we need is infection prevention and control.
“We need to contact the PTF and Ministry of Health to support our training. We need to write a proposal so that we can train doctors and health workers throughout the nation in infection prevention and control.”
When asked to be specific on when the proposal would be written, the NMA president stated, “There is holiday now, unless, there is an emergency but by the time we resume, we will do that.”
When asked if he meant January, he said, “Yes, in January we will do that.”
Ujah recalled that the association once advised government to ban flights from the UK and the United States, but the advice was not heeded.
He admitted that travellers from the UK and the US were compounding COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.
The NMA president stated, “Government knows that they (travellers from the UK and the US) are the ones responsible for increase in cases and the results have shown that and government knows what they should do.
“The travellers should be quarantined for 14 days as they come; to allow for monitoring and evaluation and they should repeat the test and if they are positive, the people should be moved to isolation centres.
On the new strain of COVID-19, he said what was important was for Nigerians to comply with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control protocols.
He stated, “Whether the strains are deadlier or not, once we observe the protocols, we are not likely to have this avalanche of cases and deaths that are being recorded in recent times.
“It (new strain) will worsen death rate, but once the NCDC protocols are observed, they will prevent people from dying. The rule is to obey and comply with NCDC protocols.
“While doing this, we must continue to increase sensitisation. The National Orientation Agency and other organisations should come out with jingles in different languages in Nigeria. Some people still don’t believe that there is COVID-19, but the reality is that it is killing people in large numbers.”
The president of NANNM, in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday said, “As a professional association, we can only say government should take very a proactive measure by banning flights from an area whereby the new variant is available or commence treatment in form of diagnosis for anybody that is coming into the country.”
He also said government had not provided enough PPE for nurses.
A Professor of Virology, Department of Virology, University of Ibadan, Prof. David Olaleye, said that what was important for the citizens to adhere strictly to preventive measures.
Olaleye, in an interview with The PUNCH, said, “The new strain has no direct implication on the citizens if people would adhere to the public health measures of preventing its spread. These are hands hygiene, use of face masks and physical distancing.” – Punch.
