UATH
According to The Nation, there is anxiety among workers of the
University of Abuja Teaching Hospital (UATH) as a patient admitted into
the hospital’s casualty ward tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19).
A source within the hospital told The Nation that the patient, a man, was admitted on April 25, 2020.
It was learnt that when he started showing symptoms of COVID-19, the
officials of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) attached to
the isolation centre at the hospital were promptly invited to take his
samples for test.
The source said when the test came out positive, the workers ran away, leaving other patients in the ward.
“The patient was admitted on Saturday evening and those on duty took his
medical history. But it did not include cough and fever. It was when
the medical team came that it was included.
“However, when his temperature became high on Sunday, the workers
nursing him raised the alarm and the NCDC officials were immediately
notified. They came and took his sample on Sunday afternoon. The result
came out positive on Tuesday evening and he was immediately evacuated to
the isolation centre,” the source said.
As the time of this report, the ward had been shut down by the
management while the workers were advised to self-isolate for 14 days
before their samples will be taken for testing.
It was not immediately clear how many workers, visitors and patients had contact with the patient before his test came out.
But the source, who was among those who nursed him, placed the number of
workers at about 20. Efforts by our reporter to reach the hospital’s
spokesperson via calls and texts did not yield any response.
But in a memo to the workers by the Chairman of the hospital’s Medical
Advisory Council, Dr. Nicholas Baalong, the management directed that any
patient who comes to the hospital without a face mask should not be
attended to.
In the memo, dated April 29, 2020, the hospital management said: “Recall
the earlier memo on the above, dated March 24, 2020. We wish to
sincerely thank all our Staff for the understanding, support and
cooperation over the last 4 weeks since we tried to put some measures in
place aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus within our facility.
“In view of the recent pronouncements from the Government, we shall
continue to observe closely as events unfold. Our clinical activities
for now still remain low except for the emergency services.
“Management wishes to take measures to further protect our healthcare
professionals and the community within the hospital which include strict
adherence to the principal of universal precaution using basic hygiene
practice of regular hand washing with the provided hypochloride solution
in water placed at designated points within the hospital.
“All Staff should be on Face-Mask at all times once within the hospital
premises. All patients and their relations coming into the hospital
should be on face-mask. Patients without face-mask would not be able to
access care in the facility. Management is making frantic efforts to
ensure availability of PPEs.”