The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association(NMA), Kogi State branch, Dr Kabir Zubair has said a number of suspected cases have been attended to at the Federal Medical Center Lokoja, although, no confirmed case has been reported in Kogi State, till date.
He noted that members of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) were among the first to attend to these patients and as such they might be exposed to the highly contagious COVID-19.
Dr Zubair stated this on Thursday while responding to newsmen enquiry on his reaction to the report of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that only one test sample has been sent in by the state which returned negative.
He said that the challenge of not testing enough had led to agitation among members of the Association of Resident Doctors, (ARD) as they are among the first to attend to suspected cases, a number of which have been received at the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja in recent times.
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“Although no COVID-19 confirmed case has been reported in Kogi State till date, a number of suspected cases have been attended to at FMC Lokoja and members of ARD were among the first to attend to these patients and as such, they might be exposed to the highly contagious COVID-19,” Kabir stated.
The chairman said that “ARD is an affiliate of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and they are among the most exposed health care workers to patients with suspected COVID-19 cases in the hospital settings.
According to him, “The NMA is aware that they have become agitated and apprehensive in the last few months due to the community spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
He said that FMC, Lokoja is the only functional tertiary health institutions in Kogi State and as such, the institution attends to a wide range of patients and the ever-present danger of being exposed to patients with COVID-19 is a major source of worry.
“As a clinician, standard practice demands that the moment you have a clinical suspicion of infectious diseases, the ideal thing is to carry out laboratory confirmation.” He noted.
According to him, “COVID-19 is a highly contagious infectious disease responsible for the ongoing global pandemic.
In Nigeria, new cases are reported daily and community spread is accelerating. This is the reason members of ARD are agitated as testing for COVID-19 has remained a challenge in the state.”
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