Doctors and Infections

By: Kalibo Vice Mayor Cynthia Dela Cruz

There are 60,000 types of germs that people come in contact with on daily basis; only 1-2 percent are potentially dangerous to normal people with normal immunity.

For doctors and other healthcare providers like me, the exposure to germs and infections are, to say the least, a daily, common experience — or as they say, “it’s part of the job.” We meet these agents of infection in our clinics, in our hospital wards and rooms, and in our community. They are found suspended on air, on the floor or on the top of contaminated objects we hold. Sometimes, they are brought by vectors like mosquitoes.

As healthcare frontliners, we are at high risk of getting infected by any of these germs, virus, or bacteria. We get flu virus many times a year but usually, we easily recover from them even without any treatment. Apart from contracting not life-threatening flu virus, there also are flu vaccines available to treat its many strains.

Due to the “hazards of the job,” we are constantly at risk of getting our patients’ common illnesses — TB, chicken pox, measles, scabies and many others, because mostly we have it already before we realize that there is an epidemic of such disease. Thanks be to God, we survive them because most of them are non life-threatening — except probably for severe types of dengue.

What further exposes as to these risks is our old practice and probably, “sense of invincibility”. As medical students and residents many years ago, we were not required then to wear masks, caps and gloves in our ordinary rounds except when we are in operating room, delivery room, isolation room and reverse isolation room. We were young then and would easily overcome them with our good immune system. We also believe that viral infection like flu is self limiting and we can recover after 3-5 days without complications. We also do not like our patients to feel insulted by wearing mask and gloves on our consultations. But this was the period before this pandemic. Things changed with the coming of the SARS virus. Whether inside a medical setting or not, everyone is wearing these protective masks especially when in public areas — a necessity including the use of sanitizer and frequent handwashing which should become new norms today and moving forward.

This new strain of corona virus which is very virulent, infectious and potentially fatal — SARS2-Covid 19 — has been changing norms, and probably, the way we run our governments, finances and personal lives. Doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers , being in the forefront of the battle, are among the first to contract the virus . I stopped counting after the 12th doctor fell on the ground. It hurts me so much! As a doctor myself, my heart bleeds for them and their respective families. These are our topnotch, selfless, passionate, idealistic, heroic doctors. They are someone’s parent, or brother, sister, husband, wife and friend. They lost their precious lives — isolated, alone and probably lonely — while helping save somebody else’s lives. We lost them due to Covid-19. They could have done more for our community and country!

We may have lost many of our assets in the medical field, but they must not leave us in vain. They left us many significant lessons, not just about this viral infection, but about living life with purpose...down to our last heartbeat. They are our heroes...our inspiration to continue fighting and beating this virus, and live even more meaningfully, beautifully, and hopefully, godly. Only then can we truly honor their sacrifices.

Yes, our doctors and health workers deserve much respect and appreciation ,not only because of their long study and difficult training , not because they are working at night while others are asleep ,but because they are risking their lives that others may live.