Doctors, Nurses Quarantined As Borno Health Worker Dies Of COVID-19
Some doctors and nurses at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Borno State are currently under quarantine, following the death of a member of an international humanitarian organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, who received treatment in the hospital.
A nurse, who did not disclose her identity, said she and some of her colleagues had raised the alarm that the late health worker should be moved to the intensive care unit of the hospital but were ignored. “The late nurse had a case of pneumonia and he had been admitted to the hospital before. I guess that was why they were not on high alert; they felt he had not travelled out of the country recently and he might have not contacted an infected persons, since he was brought in from a rural area, “ the health worker said.
Confirming the development in a statement yesterday, MSF Head of Mission in Nigeria, Siham Hajaj, said: “Our dear colleague died on April 18 in Maiduguri, and post-mortem test results indicated that he was positive for COVID-19. Due to patient confidentiality, we cannot disclose the identity of this patient.’’
The patient was the index case of COVID-19 in Borno State, while the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, also confirmed his death in an early morning tweet yesterday. Until his death, the deceased was working in Pulka, a district in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State housing thousands of displaced persons.
Following the incident, Hajaj said MSF was supporting the Ministry of Health to identify the contacts of the patient.
He added that the organisation’s projects would continue to operate and provide essential treatment for communities in the country.
The MSF head of mission revealed that the organisation had strengthened infection prevention measures, hygiene facilities, infection control and the establishment of isolation spaces, in its bid to protect its staff and patients.
