Howick doctor at forefront of virus fight
A KWAZULU-NATAL doctor is at the forefront of the novel coronavirus anti-epidemic task force in Wenzhou City, China, hoping to save as many lives as he can.
Although global deaths and daily infections were on the rise, Dr Brett Singh, from Howick, said he was not afraid as life challenges were an opportunity for those able to make a difference to show themselves as the “salt and light in the world”.
The St Charles College old boy, arrived in China in 2011 and studied medicine at Wenzhou Medical University. He is reading for his Master’s in paediatrics and is expected to graduate in June.
Based at the 2nd Affiliated Hospital & Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Singh, who has treated a number of suspected Covid-19 cases, said it had been tough working under strenuous conditions.
“It has been non-stop working. It has not been easy, with almost 3 000 deaths globally but we have definitely slowed the infection acceleration rate by the highly enforced quarantine methods.”
Singh, who has worked as a medical student at Grey’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, said the hospital was the busiest in Wenzhou and had received enormous support from the government which provided necessary supplies to fight the virus.
He said, compared with South
African hospitals, there was a much larger budget available for major hospitals in China.
“South African doctors are among the best in the world, they just need the government to help them expedite Polymerase chain reaction test kits for testing for Covid-19 cases,” he said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that 132 citizens who were living in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, would be repatriated.
However, Dr Angelique Coetzee, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association, said it was worried about protective gear for doctors.
She said masks were now unavailable worldwide since China was the main producer.
Coetzee said the National Department of Health had already arranged for all the individuals coming back to be taken to a location in Bloemfontein where they would be under quarantine for 21 days.
“The military will be looking after the patients, but everyone there will be under quarantine even the military.
“For security reasons, the location of the site will be kept confidential,” she said.
“All patients will remain at the site and they will be tested regularly. The protective gear that will be used by the special team assigned to look after the expats, will come from the military and a portion from public hospitals.”
Popo Maja, Department of Health spokesperson, refuted claims that South Africa did not have sufficient protective gear and said he could neither confirm nor deny that the quarantine site would be in Bloemfontein.
“In our view, it is not true that we do not have enough equipment in the country. We did put in place systems during the outbreak of Ebola and sent our experts to West Africa. If we were able to do that, then surely we have enough. There will never be sufficient personnel but with what we have here, we are quite confident.”