By Joy Odor
The Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has emphasized that only accredited Hospitals whether government or private are allowed to treat Covid-19 patients because of the risks involved.
He stated that the accreditation protocol was handed over to the States to manage and every State is responsible for their own accreditation including the FCT.
According to him, if any Hospital in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) wants to be involved in the treatment of Covid-19, they should first of all get accredited be the FCT.
Speaking on the spike among health workers, the Minister said health workers need to protect themselves from COVID-19 since they are the most valuable assets of response and that their lives is also respected and their services is appreciated.
The Minister expressed worries over the spike of COVID-19 in the health work force since most of them are not dealing with COVID-19 Isolation Center’s or could be that they are dealing with those who are not accredited.
Dr, Ehanire also directed that all the hospitals in the FCT to increase and scale up their sample collections in the hospitals – private or government owned that are managed by the Federal Capital Territory.
He said testing should be their utmost priority which also have its own protocol and the room where the samples will be collected, twice a day which is between 12 noon to 1pm and 6 to 7pm so as to scale up their sample and testing collection to reduce the frustration that people go through trying to get tested.
“If everybody follows the rule, the rate of infection should be very low”, he stated.
One of the persons who gave a lecture during the meeting that he had with medical doctors and the FCT Minister was the Chief Medical Director of Infectious Disease Hospital, Irrua, Prof. Sylvanus Okogbeni said it has been 10 years since the hospital started handling infectious diseases like Lassa fever, that the hospital have not recorded any infections in that hospital, not even one among the health workers because they are trained and also re-trained; they know what to do at any given time, once there is an outbreak of any disease,
He advised all health care workers not to take risks or indulge in what they are not trained or licensed to do or think that they will be exempted from the disease, is living in denial because they are just like every other persons that is vulnerable to any disease and they should always protect themselves since they are our valuable assert.
“As the trial begins in all hospitals, I am sure that all health workers would have received the proper training and we hope and pray and urge them to adhere to the training and not to get themselves infected.”
On Medical Reason whether they are male Doctors than Female Doctors treating the Covid-19 Patients, the Minister informed that medically he believed that males are more exposed because they are the ones that travel more often, interact and interface with people, hence the ratio has remained constant of 7-3% since inception but he still have to confirm through the NCDC if is it the same in other countries.
On the issue of if any hospital has been sanctioned or not the Minister reiterated that sanctioning of hospitals is left for the States to deal with any violation.
He said this is because they are the ones that issued the licenses and accredited the hospital to practise following the guideline that was given by the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Ehanire also emphasized that the protocol for testing that is started in Abuja should be replicated in other States across the federation to expand the testing capability to accommodate more people to know what the real figures are in order to ascertain a clearer picture of COVID-19 status in the country.
On the Issue of Madagascar herbal drug for COVID-19 Treatment, He informed that “the Artemisia annua which is a component of malarial treatment medicine which is used for treating malaria is added to it and the government imported this plant some years back.
“NIPRID, he said has some plantation of it which they were trying to develop its own production of ACT and the process is still under supervision but the plant is already in the country which was intended to be for anti-malaria when produced for the treatment of malaria but the type in Nigeria showed that it has a very high concentration of Artemisia annua when tested which is the active ingredient.
“To see whether the drug work against COVID-19 disease or not, Dr. Ehanire stressed that further research is to be conducted but laid more emphasis that the Madagascar herb has been identified that it contained large quantity of Artemisia annua and other important properties that was also found in the product was the bark of a tree and other thing which are impurities that came with it” Dr Ehanire stressed.
