The new normal set by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on people’s lives and more so among health care workers. Their vital role as frontline responders embodies an increased risk of infection while caring for patients which can eventually contribute to further spread of the virus.
In the complex health setting of Cox’s Bazar, caring for COVID-19 patients is not an easy feat. With the increasing number of infected health care workers around the world, WHO has been providing trainings for adequate management of patients with COVID-19 through cost-effective strategies to empower health workers responding to the pandemic in a district hosting nearly one million refugees.
As frontline responders, health care workers are most at risk. WHO is providing on-the-job training to individual health workers to enhance service quality during the CoVID-19 pandemic. Photo by WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida
“We have one suspect COVID-19 case at the moment and zero confirmed patients. To date, we have provided treatment to 90 patients and some of our staff were infected too”, tells Dr Rezaul Hasan, Resident Medical Officer.
The Upazila Health Complex in Kutubdia, an island in the Bay of Bengali, is the most difficult to reach of all Upazilas in Cox’s Bazar district. So much so, that it requires travelling half a day plus a boat transfer and a tom tom drive through the island. During WHO’s supportive supervision, the team made a quick assessment and a set of recommendations that will contribute to preventing further infections.
Slowly, service seeking is getting back to normal at Kutubdia Upazila Health Complex. Recommendations provided by WHO focused on ways to ensure continuity of essential services while ensuring appropriate management of suspected and confirmed CoVID-19 cases. Photo by WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida
“Health care workers are most at risk but the spread of Coronavirus can be prevented and controlled through several simple and cost-effective strategies. WHO is recommending education and training for an effective infection prevention and control programme in all health care facilities”, explains WHO IPC Consultant Rebecca Rachel Apolot.
In the past two months, WHO carried out a baseline IPC assessment in 47 health care facilities in and around the Rohingya camps to establish the state of IPC in the facilities, identify gaps and design adequate interventions. These include a two days training on IPC for health care facilities which was conducted for 283 health care workers from healthcare facilities in the camps and from the Upazila Health complexes of Teknaf and Ukhiya. The same training that in a few days will be conducted in Kutubdia for improved service quality.
WHO supportive supervision team has conducted visits to all health care facilities and Upazilas in Cox’s Bazar to equip health care workers of preventive strategies against further spread of COVID-19. Photo by WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida
“In the complex setting of Cox’s Bazar, it is a humbling exercise to learn the challenges faced by our colleagues during these difficult times. We believe that supportive supervision visits are pivotal to enhance the performance of health workers and improved health outcomes for Rohingya refugees and host communities. Our commitment is to protect both patients and health workers from COVID-19 as much as possible”, says WHO Head of Sub-Office, Dr Kai von Harbou.
In response to COVID-19, WHO initiated and coordinated the establishment of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) Isolation and Treatment Centres (SARI ITCs) in Cox’s Bazar. Several health partners responded positively and to date there are 581 SARI ITCs and 67 isolation active beds in the district.
WHO Head of Sub-Office, Dr Kai von Harbou, and Dr Simon Sentamu conducting of a supportive supervision visit at a SARI ITC in the Rohingya refugee camps before the admission of the first COVID-19 patients. Photo by WHO Bangladesh/ Tatiana Almeida