Frontline health workers and other medics involved in the fight against Coronavirus spread in Nigeria are bracing themselves for tougher times ahead as the country’s cases inch near the grim one thousand milestones, amidst creaking medical infrastructures.
Nigeria recorded 108 fresh infections on Thursday to push the figure to 981 according to latest updates by the Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC). With the astronomical pattern witnessed, expect a jump to the other side of the thousand when new updates are released by the NCDC on Friday.
Compared to other parts of the world, Nigeria’s situation is pretty much at its infancy; somewhere in creche if it was an academic setting. The crises seem under control at the moment. A meagre 981 cases in a country of over 200 million is sedentary, considering the virus has dwelt among citizens for almost two months.
In the same time frame, China recorded 14,381 cases and 308 deaths. Nearly the same fatalities were documented in the United States albeit with more than 10,000 persons infected than the Asians. Between January 31 and March 31, almost 200,000 persons tested positive in Italy and Spain combined, sharing close to 25,000 deaths.
Narrowing down to Africa, there are now over 27,600 confirmed cases according to John Hopkins University and Africa Center for Disease Control. The whole of the continent has rising cases with only two countries holding out as of April 23.
Six countries are already in the one thousand league; Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco. Djibouti and Tunisia bang the entrance. Yet Nigeria’s medical facilities already look overstretched and health workers overwhelmed.
During the Ebola outbreak six years ago, the World Health Organisation estimated that health workers were between 21 and 32 times more likely to be infected with Ebola than people in the general adult population. In West Africa, more than 350 health care workers died while battling Ebola.
Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities, and with no end in sight. They are working in stressful and frightening work environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected, overworked and themselves vulnerable to infection.
Coping with the coronavirus in a country of over 200 million people with a healthcare system that is overstuffed and lacks almost everything – from staff to equipment – poses a particular challenge. Healthcare workers are having a nightmare, ill-equipped and utterly exposed to the virus, especially by the elites who conceal their status.
Worst, still, they are compelled to the job without consequential welfare packages. Lagos State Government offers frontline medics N25,000. As pathetic as it appears, however, it is just about the best in the country.
When these ones fall sick, the burdens increase on health care systems already groaning under the strain of an expanding pandemic. And infected workers and their hospitals are increasingly being recognized as vectors for the spread of the virus.
Two doctors, Emeka Chugba and Dominic Essien lost their lives with scores infected, including international aid workers. More than 40 have tested positive, according to Health Minister Osagie Ehanire as on Thursday.
“Please do not try to treat patients without using adequate PPE. Frontline workers must undertake refresher training in IPC at intervals,” he said. “I urge you all to remain vigilant in the line of duty and maintain a high index of suspicion.”
Perhaps Ehanire isn’t aware of the muck in the health sector, ranging from the low budgetary allocation, poor infrastructure to insufficient remuneration for medical staff. Ranked 187 out of 190 by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2017, it is only ahead of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Myanmar.
In terms of funding, the budgetary allocation for health averaged 4 per cent in the previous five years. The most recent added 0.5 %, still less than the 15% target the African Union set for governments in 2001.
The arrival of the coronavirus has nudged the Federal and State Governments to pay attention to the health sector. They aren’t listening properly, though. Only two of the many isolation centres identified by the FG in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are fully ready and attending to coronavirus patients.
The two centres are located at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) in Gwagwalada, which has space for 33 patients and the National Hospital, Abuja, which has capacity for five patients only.
The need for more well-equipped centres can not be overemphasized. Nigeria’s epicentre with almost 600 cases has just three centres. A110-bed facility at Onikan, 100-bed capacity centre at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba and 70-bed Eti-Osa Isolation Centre constructed by the Young President Organisation. Never mind Kano.
As the pandemic spreads, health experts say the outlook for Nigeria is gloomy. If the world’s strongest economies with some of the best health systems are being humbled and even overwhelmed by the ravaging coronavirus, Nigeria with its virtually poor health facilities would have a lesser chance of containing the spread of the virus if things get really bad, they say.
“COVID-19 is here and is going to get a lot worse in the coming weeks-months. Our neglected, broken-down healthcare system simply cannot handle what is headed our way. The numbers being published are a major under-estimation. We do not have the resources to test extensively,” said Adeyemi Johnson, an interventionist cardiologist and CEO, First Cardiology Consultants.
Johnson said Nigeria is on the same trajectory as Italy, Spain and the US without the resources those countries have, projecting that thousands would die except there is a miracle.
“It is estimated that when the outbreak peaks in Nigeria, 4,000 ventilators will be needed. Currently, there are less than 200 in the country and none available to buy. The whole world is in short supply,” he said.
Nigeria flaunts of the most frightening test-per-infection ratio, with a contraction in almost every 10 suspected cases. This has a lot to do with NCDC’s targeted testings. However, with community spread on the rise, the nation may soon experience an alarming surge. And with medical facilities and personnel stretched at less than a thousand case, the future isn’t too good.
