Abstract
Since the advent of 2019-Corona virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria in February 2020, the number of confirmed cases has risen astronomically to over 61,307 cases within 8 months with more than 812 healthcare workers infected and some recorded deaths within their ranks. Infection prevention and control is a key component in ensuring safety of healthcare workers in the hospital as healthcare-associated infection is one of the most common complications of healthcare management. Unbridled transmission of infection can lead to shortage of healthcare personnel, reduced system efficiency, increased morbidity and mortality among patients and in some instances, total collapse of healthcare delivery services. The Infection Prevention and Control Committee is a recognised group by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention with their core programmes including drawing up activities, procedures and policies designed to achieve above-stated objectives before, during and after any disease outbreak, especially emerging and re-emerging ones such as the 2019 Coronavirus Disease. In this report, we highlight the roles played by the Infection Prevention and Control Committee of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within and outside the hospital community and the lessons learned to date.
Highlights
Healthcare-associated infection is one of the most common complications of healthcare management as it can lead to shortage of healthcare personnel, increased morbidity and mortality among patients and potential shut down of the health system; a situation which is made even more precarious during a pandemic
We highlight the roles played by the Infection Prevention and Control Committee of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within and outside the hospital community and the lessons learned to date
The Infection Prevention and Control Committee of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital was originally constituted in response to an upsurge in the outbreak of new cases of Lassa fever in the last quarter of 2019 in Ondo State with members drawn from various departments (Public Health, Microbiology, Internal Medicine, Medical Laboratory, Nursing, Dietetics, Administration, Public Relations and medical stores) primarily on volunteer basis
Summary
African Health Sciences, Vol 21 Issue 3, September, 2021 ed in over 213 countries as of October 17, 2020 and more than 1.1 million deaths (case fatality rate: 0.03).[1]. Caution must be applied in strictly relying on clinical evaluation in diagnosing and differentiating between COVID 19 and other respiratory illnesses nowadays as most countries are officially at the stage of person-to-person transmission and many people (asymptomatic or not) with travel history and contact have not been forthcoming with information on their travel and contact history for fear of discrimination and stigmatization.[17] Recently, in Nigeria, a number of cases who withheld relevant history have been treated inadvertently by healthcare workers.[18,19] The protocol emphasized carrying out investigations such as high resolution computerized tomography scan of the chest, full blood count and blood film for malaria parasite among others which could rule out common clinical differential diagnosis of COVID-19 in our setting Employing this strategy has enabled us to triage suspected cases for immediate isolation while awaiting results of Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction of nasopharyngeal samples. Ensure a distance of at least one metre from the patient
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