Planning key to tackle outbreak: China docs

BEIJING: Planning methodically to isolate the infected, tracking suspected cases and training health care workers should be key focus areas for countries such as India to control the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), top Chinese doctors currently working at the outbreak epicentre, Wuhan, central Hubei province’s capital, said on Wednesday.

Containing the outbreak is not the work of doctors alone, they said, as police and transport departments should be involved in containing the virus, which till date has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected over 93,000 globally.

Planning is the keyword, said Du Bin, director, medical intensive care unit at Beijing’s Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

“How many cases do you have? What is the plan to cope with the disease or the patients? The laboratory-confirmed cases as well as the close contacts; where to keep the close contacts and how to identify the probable (case) or cases within the close contacts. I do believe it is a very tough job, but it has to be done,” Du said.

Du said this at an interaction – along with three other front-line doctors from Wuhan – with journalists in Beijing via a video link on Wednesday afternoon.

“Not just health care workers but other wings of the government have to be involved [such] as public security, the police I mean, transportation or other departments. They have to work together. And, that’s the only way to control the epidemic not only in China but also in other countries,” the doctor said.

Qiao Jie, president of Peking University’s Third Hospital, said both India and China were important countries in Asia and share similarities like population and traditional family-centric activities. It was critical for the doctors to know how to put on and then take off protective clothing, she said. “Prepare the room. Use high-power exhaust fans in the ward, change [the] airflow for the patient and medical staff. Training the community population also holds the key,” Qiao said.

“Even wearing the mask, washing hands can isolate the disease,” she said.

By end-January, China had taken unprecedented and aggressive measures, including virtually locking down the Hubei province, which has a 60-million population, to contain the spread of the virus.Its capital, Wuhan, is under lockdown since January 23.

Du , however, warned that there’s always the possibility of another spike in new cases.

Cao Bin, a respiratory research specialist at the ChinaJapan Friendship Hospital in Beijing and posted in Wuhan since January, said: “The war is not over.” For India, it may have only begun.