COVID-19 testing and controversies in Akwa Ibom

For days now, the media space( print and social) has been inundated with series of unfounded mischiefs against or in support of the purported sack of one Dr. Aniekeme Uwah who before now was the State Chief Epidemiologist. I decided to use the word “purported” because it has become apparent that in this century, people […]

For days now, the media space( print and social) has been inundated with series of unfounded mischiefs against or in support of the purported sack of one Dr. Aniekeme Uwah who before now was the State Chief Epidemiologist.

I decided to use the word “purported” because it has become apparent that in this century, people who have tagged themselves  Activists, or maybe I should say ‘analyst’ have virtually failed to distinguish between ‘sack’ and ‘redeploy’.

From what I’m made to understand, Dr. Aniekeme Uwah is currently a practicing Medical Doctor under the employ of the Akwa Ibom State Government. If he was sacked, he would have been dismissed from service. What this implies is that Dr. Uwah was only redeployed to another unit in the State Ministry of Health. I’m also made to understand that he was not the only Medical Practitioner who was redeployed, about 15 others were as well reassigned to other units.

What the people of the State have been made to believe is that the fine Doctor was redeployed on the basis that he took 31 samples of Covid-19 suspected cases for test whereas his Boss, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Health had instructed that he takes only ten(10) samples. This point has served as the substructure for the crucification of Dr. Ukpong, the Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Health.

As distressed this sounded to me, I didn’t want to be pointed fashioning a judgement on a matter whose accuracy is yet to be verified. Luckily for me, I was able to get some useful information about this whole drama. Though not what I was told by my social media story tellers or read from few of the tabloids that reported the incident, but I’m happy that at last, I knew what really transpired.

When I got the news few days back, I was only concerned about the image of my mother’s State, but questioning the State Government over the redeployment of its worker was entirely out of it. The Government has every right to redeploy any of its employee at anytime it wishes. So questioning the Government, thereby requiring explanations prior to the redeployment of Dr. Uwah as the State Chief Epidemiologist was totally sickening and uncalled for. It was unethical of the professionals involved.

Before Dr. Uwah’s removal as the State Chief Epidemiologist, there was a file which contains the list of approved suspected Covid-19 cases by the Incident Management Team. During the period of sending samples to where the testing is done, Dr. Uwah omitted this list, sending a strange list which was not the approved list by the State Incident Management Team.

Often times, it was noted that some patient’s forms were not actually filled properly with complete identification. For example, some forms bore only one name of the patient, leading to errors in results fielding and making reporting. Dr. Uwah bluntly refused to  follow the stipulated NCDC guidelines for the selection and collection of samples for testing despite repeated correction. We could imagine when such error is spotted by NCDC, such a sample may risk not being tested and once this happens, it becomes a risk to everyone in the State.

Dr. Uwah is also believed to have flouted the Incident Management Committee guideline for time of sample collection to ensure specimens are forwarde, fresh, to the distant laboratories. Rather he collected and held patients specimens for over 12 hours before start of an 8 to 12-hour journey to the laboratory, thus jeopardizing the efficacy of the samples.

With all of these pointed misdemeanor of Dr. Aniekeme Uwah, every right thinking Government who holds the interest of its people above every other thing would do exactly what the Akwa Ibom State Government did. I know some people would have dismissed him from service. This is not because they hate him, but because at a time like this, the health, security and wellbeing of citizens supersede political interest.

I’ve also heard that the rationality behind his redeployment is because he had occasionally disallowed the Akwa Ibom State Government from altering tested Covid-19 results. This particular reason is laughable and only one with retarded mental health could believe it.

The National Center For Disease Control, NCDC, World Health Organization, WHO as well as Senior Staff of the Federal Ministry of Health before now had toured round the country to brief the respective State Governments on how to effectively manage the Covid-19 situation and how to go about the testing of suspected cases.

One of such was that each State after collecting samples of suspected cases must send the samples to the assigned testing laboratories where the test would be conducted. Once the test is conducted and the patient’s status confirmed, the NCDC will send a copy of the test result to the  Government of the State involved while a copy goes to Abuja. After this has been done, the NCDC publishes this result on their website and Twitter handle for public consumption.

This is to say that it is strictly the prerogative of NCDC to conduct Covid-19 test and also to announce result of cases. With this, there’s no human being nor power that can alter any result from this body. Even if the result on reaching the State is altered, would they also be able to alter that which the NCDC has penciled down?

This is no time for politics. This is a time that everyone must join his/her hands with the Government to proffer solutions to this global pandemic.

 

Yusuf contributed this piece from Lagos.