ABUJA – As the Ebola virus continues to pose a threat, the National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria on Thursday said its members were ready to go back and contain the virus if certain safety measures were met.
Dr Jibril Abdullahi, President of the Association and a resident doctor with the Amino Kano Teaching Hospital Kano, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that the recent meeting with government was important as the Ebola issue was a national one and as such resident doctors were ready to sheath their sword temporarily for the sake of the nation.
“Our members are willing to participate in the containment of the Ebola outbreak but government must be seen to provide what is required.
“We need to have well equipped facilities at least a `high dependency unit’ where his system can be supported because the more survivors we have, the better outcome for the country.
“Nigerian doctors are ever willing to participate but the government must do the right thing.
“This is a country where the hazard allowance of a doctor is N5,000 per month in the same nation where the hardship allowance of a Senator is N1,241,000 and above.
“And you are expecting people to start dancing going to face Ebola when the personal protective equipment you are bringing are not good enough.
“I don’t have health insurance; I know as I approach this person with Ebola, I am taking a huge risk in a country where my pension is not guaranteed.
“If you are a Nigerian healthcare workers and they ask you to go and work without the necessary protective equipment in the face of Ebola will you come out?
“This is what happened even in Liberia,” he said. [eap_ad_1] He, however, said that the doctors would not use the same protective equipment used in bird flu for the Ebola issue as Ebola was more dangerous.
He decried the situation where those who flew first class with the late Patrick Sawyer had not been identified and quarantined if they were still in Nigeria.
He said government must invest in research stressing that there was need for the doctors and other health care workers who would be involved in the containment of the virus to be duly trained.
“Managing this outbreak requires intensive training; you have to be trained on how to wear, how to remove, how to decontaminate that personal protective equipment.
“There are so many loopholes for which one could get infected when treating the patients; one of the essential in managing this outbreak is appropriate case management: clinicians, doctors, nurses who take care of the sick.
“We want to urge all health workers to treat every patient as if he has Ebola until proved otherwise; which means we must have personal protective equipment in all hospitals including private ones.
“It is a chain reaction so if you don’t look at it critically as a clinician you end up doing more harm to the society that even solving a problem because if I get infected, pass it to my family it will spread.
“The health workers may end up serving as the vehicle for the spread of this disease,” he said.
Reacting to the issues of doctors running away from Ebola, he said that “the only reasons why doctors run is when they are not insured or when there are no protective measures for the doctors.’’
According to him, the issues that are important to the National Association of Resident Doctors are issues that are general to every doctor including the minister of health who is a doctor.
On preventive measures, he advised Nigerians to “ wash your hands frequently, avoid crowded places especially places where you are likely going to have foreigners coming around.
“Anybody who has symptoms of catarrh, high fever, marked muscle aches and body weakness, take him to the hospital.’’ (NAN)
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