As the
world marks this year's World Day for Safety and Health at Work, the Nigerian
Medical Association, NMA has said that a total of 264 doctors have been exposed
to COVID-19 situations out of which 20 actually contracted the infection, and
two recovered so far with three mortalities.
In a
message of solidarity to health workers, particularly for those who contracted
COVID-19 and tribute to those who have died from the disease, the NMA also
salute health workers over what they described as their 'astute conviction and
unwavering patriotism'.
Commiserating
with the families and associates of the deceased, the NMA acknowledged that
contracting the virus from patients with the highly contagious COVID-19 was
feasible even with the best of conditions due to the inevitability of close
contacts with the sick.
In the
message jointly signed by the National President of the NMA, Dr Francis
Faduyile and the General Secretary, Dr Olumuyiwa Odusote to mark this year's
Health at Work with the theme: "Stop the pandemic: Safety and health at
work can save lives", the NMA restated that the occurrence could be
reduced with strict adherence to the global best practice of Infection
Prevention and Control (IPC) protocols.
"Availability
of personal protective equipment (PPE) inadequate quality and quantity,
amenities like running water, enabling the environment in the health service
space and spirit-lifting motivation and incentives can mitigate hazardous
environments, reduce drastically the incidence of nosocomial infections and
engender a hazard-free health service environment.
"We
salute the astute conviction and unwavering patriotism of all health workers in
Nigeria especially the uncommon courage at the war front against COVID-19 and
commiserate with the families and associates of the deceased."
The NMA
pledged to continue to engage with appropriate levels of authority to provide
for the safety of healthcare workers all over Nigeria while mobilising their
members to brace up to continue to defend their fatherland and its people
against the ravaging army of Coronavirus.
"This is
also why the NMA has flagged off the "Save Our Private Health
Practitioners (SOPHEP) Program" to mobilise resources in cash and kind to
provide adequate PPE and consumables to assist private health facilities
seemingly abandoned by public authorities to practice IPC for their safety and
protection of their staff, their patients and by extension the general
public," they added.
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