Virus targets city’s first line of defence
Photo by Raju Shelar
Both doctors saw hundreds of patients in the past three weeks with very basic protective gear - mask and gloves .
Concerns grew on Friday about the city’s vital frontline in the battle againstcovid-19 virus being under attack after two doctors running small clinics – one in Kalina and the other in Andheri – tested positive.
One of the two general practioners (GP) also consulted with private hospitals.
health crisis – on the other they have begun tracing the dozens of patients the two GPs would have come in contact with over the past couple of weeks.
While the government has asked all GPs to keep their clinics open, in the absence of any protective gear they have been themselves left exposed to the highly contagious coronavirus.
The Kalina doctor, 40, – who is now being treated at the S L Raheja Hospital in Mahim with his wife and two children in isolation in the same hospital – was treating a 37-year-old waiter who had recently returned from Italy. The waiter visited his clinic twice. On the first occasion, the doctor referred him to Kasturba where he tested negative. The second time, convinced he was showing definite signs of coronavirus infection, he sent him to Kasturba again. This time the 37-year-old tested positive.
The doctor is worried that the man possibly infected many others in the slum where he lives. He is also angry that theBMC did not think it fit to isolate the 37-year-old, who lives in slum in Kalina, when he first visited Kasturba and sent him home for self-quarantine. “How does one self-quarantine in aslum where you use a community toilet. He was showing symptoms and had just returned from a country wrecked by coronavirus. This is dereliction of duty on the BMC’s part.” the doctor said.
In the Andheri GP’s case, his wife and daughter too have tested positive. Nearly 60 of the 53-year-old physician’s patients have been put in isolation and are being screened. The doctor does not have any travel history.
Officials said that the doctor went on leave from the two hospitals he consulted with two days after developing cough and fever. He reportedly treated around 20 patients in the OPD and another 20-odd in the wards at the two hospitals. The resident medical officer and a nurse who had worked with him have been put under home quarantine. The rooms where he met patients have been sanitised and the hospital buildings are being disinfected.
Dr Krishnakant Dhebri, member, General Practitioners Association, said many GPs have shut their clinics out of fear. He said while he is aware that personal protective equipment (PPEs) are in short supply, the government must do something about it. “Covid-19 infection mimics the symptoms of common influenza – one of the most common ailment the GPs deal with. It is a scary situation for GPs,” he said.
Dr Gangadhar Maheshwari, president,MBBS Doctors Association in Navi Mumbai, said doctors have begun advising patients to consult them over the phone. Dr Maheshwari, a former president of Indian Medical Association ’s Navi Mumbai chapter, said his colleagues have stopped checking blood pressure readings and drawing blood for tests. “I don’t blame them. We are the most vulnerable in this crisis. While it is our duty to help patients, the government must do something to ensure out safety,” he said.
Another leading GP in Vashi Dr Gautam Joshi has stopped going to his clinic since Monday. “I do telephonic consultation and video calls with my patients. I ask them to go to Kasturba for tests if they have fever and other symptoms instead of coming to me,” he said.
In China, where the virus was first discovered, protecting health care workers was a serious challenge. More than 3,300 nurses, doctors and other hospital staff members across the country were infected, many because of insufficient protective equipment.
Mumbai now faces the same challenge.
Concerns grew on Friday about the city’s vital frontline in the battle against
One of the two general practioners (GP) also consulted with private hospitals.
While on the one hand the city’s health authorities are now wondering how best to protect the city’s 10,000 GPs – the first line of defence in this unprecedented
While the government has asked all GPs to keep their clinics open, in the absence of any protective gear they have been themselves left exposed to the highly contagious coronavirus.
The Kalina doctor, 40, – who is now being treated at the S L Raheja Hospital in Mahim with his wife and two children in isolation in the same hospital – was treating a 37-year-old waiter who had recently returned from Italy. The waiter visited his clinic twice. On the first occasion, the doctor referred him to Kasturba where he tested negative. The second time, convinced he was showing definite signs of coronavirus infection, he sent him to Kasturba again. This time the 37-year-old tested positive.
The doctor is worried that the man possibly infected many others in the slum where he lives. He is also angry that the
In the Andheri GP’s case, his wife and daughter too have tested positive. Nearly 60 of the 53-year-old physician’s patients have been put in isolation and are being screened. The doctor does not have any travel history.
While all GPs have been asked to keep their clinics open, they have not been provided any protective gear (Photo by Satyajit Desai)
Officials said that the doctor went on leave from the two hospitals he consulted with two days after developing cough and fever. He reportedly treated around 20 patients in the OPD and another 20-odd in the wards at the two hospitals. The resident medical officer and a nurse who had worked with him have been put under home quarantine. The rooms where he met patients have been sanitised and the hospital buildings are being disinfected.
Dr Krishnakant Dhebri, member, General Practitioners Association, said many GPs have shut their clinics out of fear. He said while he is aware that personal protective equipment (PPEs) are in short supply, the government must do something about it. “Covid-19 infection mimics the symptoms of common influenza – one of the most common ailment the GPs deal with. It is a scary situation for GPs,” he said.
Dr Gangadhar Maheshwari, president,
Another leading GP in Vashi Dr Gautam Joshi has stopped going to his clinic since Monday. “I do telephonic consultation and video calls with my patients. I ask them to go to Kasturba for tests if they have fever and other symptoms instead of coming to me,” he said.
In China, where the virus was first discovered, protecting health care workers was a serious challenge. More than 3,300 nurses, doctors and other hospital staff members across the country were infected, many because of insufficient protective equipment.
Mumbai now faces the same challenge.
