It Turned Out That Most Medical Personnel Died Not Specifically For Handling COVID-19

Illustrated. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Daeng M. Faqih found the fact that the number of medical personnel who died from COVID-19 did not come from a special referral hospital for handling the corona virus.

This fact was discovered based on the direct investigation of the task force team (task force) formed by the IDI Executive Board. They formed this team because they did not get detailed data on COVID-19 cases among medical personnel from the government.

"Most of them work in other hospitals or private practices. He contracted it from a patient who happened to be a person without symptoms and was already infected with COVID-19," said Daeng during the Trijaya FM Polemic event, Saturday, April 18.

Daeng said the cause of contracting the medical personnel was because the patient who visited the doctor did not realize that he had COVID-19. Not to mention, the doctor was not very aware of the transmission of the corona virus.

"The patient does not understand that he is infected, and the doctor does not know and is less alert because he comes to the doctor without saying he has symptoms like COVID-19," he explained.

Then, the lack of distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the government makes health workers forced to use PPE improperly in carrying out their duties. In fact, some of them wore PPE that did not meet health standards.

He gave an example of the case of an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist in Makassar named Bernadette Albertine Fransisca who died while still being a patient under surveillance (PDP) corona.

Based on IDI's search results, the doctor became a PDP as a result of serving COVID-19 positive patients. However, unfortunately he only wore a makeshift PPE with ordinary plastic.

"The limitations of PPE, especially in the early days of the case, were a lot of medical personnel who were lacking, so my friends made many modifications. From these modifications, we know that we cannot prevent infection 100 percent," he said.

Until now, 44 medical personnel have died due to exposure to the corona virus. To prevent further transmission, IDI asked all doctors to limit their practice.

"If possible, face-to-face practice is not carried out except in emergency cases. If he is forced to do face-to-face practice, all the patients they face, whether they show symptoms of COVID-19 or not, we ask them to wear PPE in accordance with the guidelines for preventing COVID-19 transmission. "the lid.