Three medical staffs are getting infected every hour on average while fighting against the novel coronavirus at both government and private hospitals across the country.
This latest scenario is tantamount to bad omen as doctors and medical staffs for health system are as important as blood for sustaining the human lives, public health experts say.
Until Tuesday, a total of 652 doctors and nurses working at different government and private hospitals across the country have been infected so far by the deadly virus in their fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, according to information provided by leading associations of doctors and nurses in the country.
Talking to leaders of Bangladesh Doctors Foundation (BDF) and Society for Nurses Safety and Rights (SNSR), it was learnt that 422 physicians and 230 nurses have been tested positive for the deadly virus.
In National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases alone, 18 doctors, nurses and other medical staffers diagnosed with coronavirus recently.
“Six doctors, eight nurses, a ward master and three staffers of the hospital were infected with coronavirus,” said Dr Kajal Kumar Karmakar of NICVD’s Department of Cardiology.
Three wards of the state of the art institute for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases were shut until Tuesday, he added.
BDF chief administrator Dr Nirupam Das, at their daily briefing on Tuesday, said “Altogether 49 doctors tested positive for coronavirus in the last 24 hours till 5am on Tuesday, bringing the total of number of doctors infected with the virus in Bangladesh so far to 422.” An alarming 308 doctors have been infected with the virus in Dhaka division alone, with 191 of them from government hospitals, 97 affiliated to private hospitals and the remaining 20 falling under ‘other’.
The second-worst division for doctors - after Dhaka, although way behind - has been Mymensingh with 46 physicians got infected; Chattogram with 14, Khulna with 13, Barishal with 10, 6 in Sylhet, 5 in Rangpur and 20 others whose locations were not captured on the system.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country had just 6 doctors, nurses, and midwives - essentially 6 healthcare workers for every 10,000 people until July, 2019.
Asked about the safety of doctors while treating coronavirus patients, DrNirupam on Saturday said there is no alternative to personal protective equipment (PPE), quality gowns, masks, gloves and goggles for doctors’ safety.
BDF has 90,000 members across the country, DrNirupam informed, adding all of them are registered physicians.
Meanwhile, Society for Nurses Safety and Rights general secretary Sabbir Mahmud Tihan told The Bangladesh Post on Saturday that “So far, around 230 nurses from different government and private hospitals have been found positive for coronavirus.”
“Of them, 148 are from government hospitals and 87 are from different private hospitals,” he added. He said among the infected nurses, 180 are from Dhaka, 14 from Mymensing and 11 are from different other districts. Bangladesh on Monday recorded 5,913 coronavirus cases and 152 deaths.
