Calls to screen every healthcare provider for COVID-19 grow after surge in confirmed cases

When a septuagenarian patient undergoing treatment in a regular ward at one of the leading hospitals in Karachi for over a month tested positive for the novel coronavirus, it set alarm bells ringing among the hospital’s administration.

After screening the entire staff of that ward, most of the doctors, nurses and paramedics were found to have tested positive for the virus, with all of them being asymptomatic (showing no symptoms of the disease).

Periodic screening of healthcare staff at various public and private hospitals in Karachi and other cities of the country has revealed that hundreds of healthcare providers have been infected with COVID-19.

But what is the most alarming to the authorities is the number of asymptomatic healthcare providers, as they keep on examining and treating patients while infecting a large number of them.

“One of the top health facilities in the country recently screened their staff for COVID-19, and to their surprise, 30% of them were infected with the coronavirus,” revealed an official of the Sindh Health Department.

“Despite being infected with the coronavirus, all these healthcare workers were asymptomatic, which means that they had no symptoms of the disease, and due to that, they could pass on the viral infection to their patients, who were already suffering from other diseases.”

The official said that at the moment, around 1,200 healthcare providers are infected with COVID-19 throughout the country, including more than 600 doctors, adding that of these, 164 doctors and healthcare providers are hospitalised and undergoing treatment while two of them are on life support.

The results of screening at one of Pakistan’s leading health facilities were so alarming that they decided to review the standard operating procedures for the high-risk population in the country, which include screening all the healthcare providers because they are the most vulnerable section of society.

“All those healthcare providers who have so far tested positive for COVID-19 are contracting the disease either from their patients or the people they meet after going back home,” said the official.

“After contracting the coronavirus, these healthcare providers return to the health facilities where they work, and in this way, they are spreading the disease to the patients who are already at risk.”

But experts say the federal government is calling for the screening of only those first responders, healthcare workers and public health experts who develop respiratory symptoms.

They said that in most cases were of people who had contracted the coronavirus were asymptomatic, and being carriers of the virus, they can easily pass it on to their patients.

“If a large number of staff members of a tertiary-care health facility has tested positive for COVID-19, it is an alarming situation,” Prof Dr Sohail Akhtar, a leading pulmonologist and leader of the Pakistan Islamic Medical Association told The News.

“Healthcare providers are among the high-risk group concerning COVID-19, so there is a need to screen all the healthcare providers at all the health facilities. But this is not the only way out.”

Dr Akhtar said the authorities and the hospital managements should ensure the availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) in abundance for healthcare providers, while they should also be trained to properly don and doff the PPE, adding that healthcare providers should consider every patient a potential carrier of virus and bacteria, including COVID-19.

“Rapid test or antibody test can also be an option to ascertain if a person has immunity against the coronavirus, and if they have IgG [Immunoglobulin G] antibodies in their blood, they should be allowed to move in the community.”

On the other hand, authorities say healthcare workers were rapidly contracting the coronavirus at health facilities across the country, as by Monday, the number of healthcare workers infected with COVID-19 in the country had reached around 1,200.

“Several wards and critical care facilities have either been closed or are on the verge of closure as 403 more healthcare providers have contracted the coronavirus in the past week alone,” said a federal health ministry official.

“So far 1,169 healthcare providers have tested positive, of whom 50% are doctors,” he added. He said the situation at the facilities treating COVID-19 patients is worsening with every passing day, as not only doctors but also trained nurses, paramedics and technicians are contracting the disease.

He also said Pakistan’s health facilities had already been facing an extreme shortage of trained and qualified healthcare providers, especially intensivists, pulmonologists, infectious diseases specialists and intensive care unit staff.

“At the moment, 164 healthcare providers, mostly doctors, are themselves hospitalised after contracting the coronavirus, while the condition of two of them is serious, as they are on ventilators,” said the official.

“Some 667 have already gone into self-isolation after testing positive for the viral infection, causing an extreme shortage of healthcare providers at our health facilities.”

Originally published in The News