Mozambique: One doesn’t fight COVID-19 without protecting the doctors – O País

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Mozambique: One doesn’t fight COVID-19 without protecting the doctors – O País

4:04 CAT | 27 Oct 2020

File photo: O País

Outraged doctors have said in a statement that scarcity of individual protective equipment is putting their lives and those of their families at risk, as well as the health of hospital users and the National Health System itself.

It is literally an outburst, after the circulation of several messages supposedly written by health professionals denouncing deficiencies in their protection against the pandemic. The doctors at the forefront in the treatment of Covid-19 patients start by making it known that “the Medical Association of Mozambique recently surveyed 139 doctors from all over the country, of whom more than half had not received complete personal protective equipment suitable for their duties in the previous days”.

According to the Order of Doctors of Mozambique and the Medical Association of Mozambique, who signed the joint statement, there is no doubt that the problem is serious because “it puts health professionals, their families and users of their health units at risk”.

“Ultimately, the health system is less able to provide the best possible response when health professionals are not adequately protected,” they say, pointing out that “Covid-19 cannot be fought without protecting health professionals”.

In the eyes of the doctors, one of the consequences of this problem was the recent death of surgeon António Guilherme Mujovo, who was also an advisor to the Minister of Health. Mujovodie died of Covid-19 in Maputo on the 20th of October. Doctors feel that not enough was done to save him.

“We had and continue to have the perception that much more could have been done to save such a precious cadre for the country,” the two associations say. For them, there are still many questions to answer. “If our National Health System was unable to fully protect the health and life of such a valued cadre, what will become of other young professionals? What will become of the population living below the poverty line in remote areas of the country such as the Chinde Delta, Namapa or Mapai? What will become of Mozambicans living on less than a dollar a day, in the crowded neighbourhoods of Paquitequete, Munhava or Chamaculo? What will become of them?” ask the doctors, who demand urgent measures to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the population in general and health professionals, particularly in relation to Covid-19.

In addition to the pandemic, two other problems are flagged as pressing: the lack of essential medicines, including antibiotics and laboratory reagents, and imaging devices such as X-rays and NMR, which either do not exist or are out of order in health units across the country.

One of the most recent updates on the impact of the pandemic on doctors dates from June this year, and found that more than 90 health professionals had already been infected with the virus since the first case was recorded in Mozambique last March.

The problem is global, Ussene Isse says

In response to the doctors’ complaint, National Director of Medical Assistance Ussene Isse said yesterday that the shortage of personal protective equipment for health professionals was a global problem, and that health authorities were working to make individual protection for medical staff available. “We are receiving personal protective equipment. Medicines are arriving, reagents are arriving, but not in the way we would like. It is a slow process because globally, it is still a big challenge,” Isse said.

“We now have more than 1.5 million N95 masks, more than 550 thousand disposable gowns and more than 600 thousand overalls throughout this week. This equipment is arriving and will secure conditions for our health professionals,” Isse told a press conference yesterday.

Source: O País