Adebayo Folorunsho-Francis
A frontline health worker, Dr. Ajibola Ojikutu says fear is the main factor holding back suspected COVID-19 patients from presenting early in hospitals for treatment.
He, however, noted that the palpable fear of the viral disease has gradually subsided.
Ojikutu, a senior medical officer at Ikorodu General Hospital shared his experience treating COVID-19 patients in Nigeria in a video posted on the verified Twitter handle of the United Nations.
“It was difficult for people to present early because they were scared. People were really worried about COVID-19. So for you to be labelled a COVID-19 patient looked like a very big deal for so many people.
“For us in Lagos, our experience at the initial periods when the pandemic came up was very difficult.
“PPE was not readily available. Some of us invested in PPE ourselves just to ensure we didn’t take chances,” he said.
He stated further that doctors, nurses and other health workers in many health facilities and isolation centres across the country have been working round the clock to fight the pandemic and save lives.
The frontline doctor said that he volunteered to join the first-team treating COVID-19 patients in his hospital shortly after the country recorded its index case.
“The fact that we had multiple learning sessions and updates about COVID-19 sort of helped us to work as a team. It took a lot of self-encouragement and strength to actually pull through.
“Over the weeks to months, it got better. We had better information and guidelines being brought up and it was a lot scarier in the initial period. But we are good now,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has reported 501 new cases of COVID-19 infections in the country in 14 states including the Federal Capital Territory in the last 24 hours.
In a series of tweets posted on its social media handle, the NCDC announced that Lagos state (218) infections, FCT (112), Kaduna (53), Plateau (24) and Katsina (21) States have the recent highest cases of infection.
Other were Kano (16), Yobe (14), Ondo (10), Ogun (9), Edo (7), Bayelsa (5), Rivers (4), Borno (4), Osun (2) and Ekiti (2).
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