‘There should be interstate COVID-19 screening for people moving around’

Dr Audu Onyemocho is an associate Professor of Community Medicine, and Head of Department of Epidemiology and Community Health at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi. Onyemocho who is also a member of the Benue State COVID-19 Task force team in this interview speaks on ways government, health workers and the public could curb […]

Dr Audu Onyemocho is an associate Professor of Community Medicine, and Head of Department of Epidemiology and Community Health at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi. Onyemocho who is also a member of the Benue State COVID-19 Task force team in this interview speaks on ways government, health workers and the public could curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country, the lockdown ordered in some states, and the COVID-19 response in Benue among other.

 

As an epidemiologist, what is your advice in halting the spread of COVID-19 in the country ?

Initially, the first cases were imported to the country but now there is evidence of community transmission. Community transmission is a situation where a person who is infected with the virus does not have any history of coming from overseas or contact with an infected person because we now have cases where medical professionals who are in the front lines are also getting infected.

There are other people too who had no history of travel or contact with index cases but are also having the virus ,that means there is an evidence of community transmission already and when there is community transmission, we still need to go back to what actually caused the illness.

There is what we call the host, the agent and the environment. The agent is already known as the COVID-19 virus, and the host now is everybody because everyone  is susceptible to the virus.

What is the route of transmission? Anybody who has the illness can cough,  sneeze, and the virus can hang out as a droplet either in the air, soil or contaminate  surfaces of objects.

If you want to cough, make sure you follow the cough etiquette; cover your mouth, or your elbow and cough into it, or use handkerchief.

Also wear face mask because 80% of theses illnesses comes in  an  asymptomatic format . The person can have it without having the symptoms , but even when there are no symptoms of the illness, he or she can still transmit it to others.

So everyone is susceptible to the illness and needs to a wear a  face mask. This will reduce the chances of you transmitting it to another person or another person transmitting it to you.

Another way is that  since it is transmitted via droplets, droplets can go within some short distance, so give yourself distance from anyone you see at all, because everyone is a potential carrier until proven otherwise. That is why we talk about social distancing.

You also have to wash your hands regularly because these droplets can remain on surfaces and objects, and once your hand is contaminated, you can carry that hand to your face, nose or eyes and  get infected. You can also infect other people by shaking their hands, so it is important to avoid all these things.

Once these basic principles are taken, we have the chance of reducing the infection and there is a slogan that, ‘the  virus doesn’t move, it is human beings that move’ so if you restrict yourself from moving, the chances of getting contact with other people will also reduce. That is why a lockdown was ordered.

There should also be interstate screening for people moving from one place to the other , once you have suspects take them to hospital and treat them. That way , the illness will go away with time.

 

Do you think the country has achieved anything from the lockdown so far?

The lock down is very important and has helped. If we had blocked the borders when cases were being recorded in Europe, China, and America, transmission to persons in the country will not have taken place.

Now that we have evidence of community transmission, the only way is to have a lockdown. Lockdown limits the contact between one person and another and as I stated earlier, everybody is a potential carrier until proven otherwise.

The lock down breaks the chain of the transmission. It has helped but the only thing is that, when the COVID-19 outbreak started initially, the screening was not much, and there was under reporting of cases.

So gradually, when there is mass screening you begin to get new cases.

We are recording cases now because screening has been increased. For instance there was were no cases in Kano at a time but when screening commenced there a case was recorded , and then it kept increasing in numbers until we didn’t get cases there anymore because there was a problem at the screening center and they could not screen people.

When you don’t screen people, there is no way you can get cases. So the fact that we are still recording  low number of cases does not mean we don’t have a lot of cases around.

Look at Ghana for instance when they lifted their lockdown, there was an increase with about 200 cases upward.

Even though the lockdown is not convenient for everybody and creates hardships, I think for now, it is one of the best ways we can achieve and put an end to COVID -19 if we adhere to it .

 

Do you think the lockdown should be extended for some time more?

Well in my own opinion , I think yes because anything that has a reward has a price to be paid. The lockdown is the price we need to pay now.

There is a slogan that two things must come in life. You must play and you must pay. The wise man choses to pay now and play later, but the foolish man chooses to play now and pay later. if you bring this analogy to COVID-19, we have to pay now and play later or we choose to play now and pay later.

It is a difficult thing especially for those who are unemployed or do daily jobs but if we you go out and are infected with the disease, your families and others around us  can have the illness too but if we pay now and stay at home, and the chain of transmission is broken, and community transmission is no more there, everyone will be safe and smile later.

Though it is not convenient, I appeal to everyone to bear it for a while and once there is no more community transmission life can return to normal.

 

What is your advice for health workers?

Firstly , health workers need assessment, because is not every health worker that has  knowledge about it but it is also expected that they have an idea of Infectious disease prevention and control (IPC).

Health workers should wear Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), wash their hands regularly with alcohol-based solution, water and soap. They should also use hand sanitizers, and also note  that everyone  is a potential carrier and have a high index of suspicion, that is any case that come could be a COVID-19 case  and do the IPC control method.

When a  patient has COVID-19 symptoms, or meet the Centres for Disease Control criteria or definition for COVID-19,  they should isolate and notify the appropriate authorities This will help reduce the incidence of infection among them.

They should also do proper waste management; anything used for patients should be disposed properly.

These are the basic things that a health worker can do and once, they  keep to the IPC principles, there will be zero complications among health workers. Government should also provide PPE for health workers and train them.

The public should also note that everyone one is susceptible to COVID-19, it doesn’t show on the face so the only way is to protect yourself and people around you. Put on face mask as you move around, observe social and physical distance , wash your hand frequently and don’t hide when you have symptoms.

 

What is your role in the Benue COVID-19 Taskforce team?

I work in the surveillance team of COVID-19 task force of  Benue state. We do daily data collection, analyses of the data, and disseminating and projecting it for the thing to be done.

So essentially, when we have any case, we look for the contacts the person possibly have had. We then do contact listing, tracing and monitoring of the  those contacts to see whether they will develop the symptoms of the disease or not.

Also when we have rumors of people coming from places , states or countries where the disease have been reported or endemic, we trace and watch them up to see whether they have develop the disease or not , and where there is need for collection of samples, we collect it samples and send it to Abuja and await the result.

 

What is the COVID-19 situation now in Benue?

After that index case in Benue, we have not had any other case yet.

We traced those who had contact with the index case and monitored them for 14 days. We took their samples and sent them to Abuja and all the result came out negative. There was also another rumor that we monitored and checked. So far as at Friday last week, about 39 samples were taken and all of them came out negative. So we don’t have any other case for now.

 

Is the index case being managed in Benue or in Abuja?

She was initially managed in Benue and later transferred to Abuja.