Director of Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Institute: 'Conceding a goal in an unexpected place' 13
– Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases is considered a stronghold and the city’s frontline in fighting the epidemic.
Since the outbreak of Covid-19, as the main place responsible for Covid-19 treatment in Ho Chi Minh City, the hospital has focused on establishing a `defense` system, with the goal of preventing infection between Covid-19 patients.
Concerned about the risk of infection from patients coming for medical examination and treatment, the hospital has implemented many solutions such as medical declaration, screening, and isolation of suspected cases with epidemiological factors.
Severely ill Covid-19 patients are treated in negative pressure rooms with pressure control and air conduction systems that help one-way air flow, both improving patient care, reducing the risk of virus transmission, and protecting workers.
The hospital also regularly conducts screening tests for medical staff to ensure `cleanliness` when caring for patients.
Not only treatment staff, but also office and administrative staff are fully vaccinated, have medical declarations, and wear masks when working.
Working conditions in closed, air-conditioned, cramped offices, combined with the work characteristics that require coordination and communication between departments and all the way to clinical and paraclinical departments, resulted in 55 employees.
In addition, an easy way to spread the disease is when eating and sitting together, or when resting in a dormitory room.
– What lessons can be learned from this infection incident?
Initially, it can be seen that Covid-19 is transmitted to hospital staff not only directly from patients but also from infected colleagues during contact with family members or outside social relationships.
More than 80% of Covid-19 infections are completely asymptomatic but can still be transmitted.
Therefore, it is not only necessary to increase vigilance in the treatment and patient contact areas, but also to tighten control in all rooms and departments throughout the hospital.
All medical staff, including non-health professionals working in the hospital, must strictly comply with the 5K measure. After working hours, limit contact with people around them, do not gather, and do not go to the hospital.
Doctor, Doctor Nguyen Van Vinh Chau, Director of Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, reported on the Covid-19 situation at the hospital, when Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son came to work, on June 13.
– How does this infection cluster affect the hospital’s operations as well as the city’s current field hospitals treating Covid-19, when the medical staff of the Hospital for Tropical Diseases plays a core role?
This infection incident affects logistics activities for treatment such as operating the information technology system that manages all aspects of operations from treatment expertise to hospital administration;
The hospital has been locked down since June 12 to disinfect and carry out epidemic prevention work. All hospital staff must be quarantined in the hospital.
Covid-19 testing at the hospital is still carried out as usual, samples will be delivered at the gate and full measures will be taken to ensure safety and epidemic prevention.
After recording the employees testing positive for nCoV, the hospital urgently prepared the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floor blocks with 300 beds as centralized quarantine areas for F1s.
The institute’s leadership organized and mobilized to provide meals for medical staff who are quarantined here, and at the same time encouraged staff to overcome difficulties together.
We have faith that in about a week, everything will stabilize.
– What do you say about the current fight against the epidemic, when the number of patients is too large, creating great pressure on the medical treatment system?
Medical staff can also get infected from society like everyone else, and then spread it into medical facilities.
During this epidemic, Ho Chi Minh City proactively responded with a plan of 5,000 infections, with 7 treatment facilities.
– The current community concern is why people still get infected when vaccinated with Covid-19 vaccines, while there is almost no research in the world on the effectiveness of vaccines against mutations, other than the manufacturer’s announcements.
No vaccine can completely protect the vaccinated person from the risk of disease, even if the virus strain that causes the disease does not mutate.
This cluster of infections among medical staff at Ho Chi Minh City Tropical Diseases Hospital is an unexpected misfortune, but can also be seen as an opportunity to research and evaluate vaccine effectiveness in a real situation.
The hospital is coordinating with the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit to conduct research to evaluate the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine on Vietnamese people, who are medical staff at the Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases, and conduct a survey.
With 55 positive employees after receiving two full doses of vaccine, the team will analyze the characteristics of the virus strain that causes the disease, antibody concentration and correlation of viral load, clinical progression and time to clear the virus… Here
Le Phuong
