Opinions
Volume: 36 | Issue: 2S | Published: Jun 24, 2020 | Pages: 41 - 42
COVID-19: Utmost Need to Protect Frontline Health Care Workers in Pakistan
Authors: Zohaib Ashraf , Muna Malik , Muhammad Irfan Malik
Article Info
Authors
Zohaib Ashraf
Microbiologist – COVID-19 Laboratory, DG Khan Medical College, DG Khan-Pakistan.
Muna Malik
Assistant Professor of Pathology. PGMI/AMC/LGH, Lahore-Pakistan.
Muhammad Irfan Malik
Associate Professor of Pulmonology, PGMI/AMC/LGH. Focal Person of COVID-19 at LGH, Lahore-Pakistan.
Publication History
Received: May 14, 2020
Revised: May 21, 2020
Accepted: June 17, 2020
Published: June 24, 2020
Abstract
Health care professionals (HCPs) remain the most vulnerable population while performing their duties they inadvertently put themselves at high risk for any pandemic. During COVID-19 outbreak, scarce supply of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and prolonged exposure of HCPs with large number of COVID-19 positive cases in healthcare settings, long stressful duty hours and insufficient infection prevention and control (IPC) training given to them has led to a large number of infected cases. Policies should be designed and implemented for more screening and better protection with provision of optimal resources to these valuable personnel of health care system.
Keywords: COVID-19, Health care professionals, Personal protective equipment, SARS-CoV-2.
