About 100 health workers from various health establishments centers in Enugu are being trained on proper handling of COVID-19 cases in the state by United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) in conjunction with the Enugu state Ministry of Health.
The training which started on 20th of May 2020 at the Nike resort hotel Enugu and would end 27th, have participants ranging from consultants to cleaners in all the three isolation and treatment centers.
The training as disclosed by Ifeyinwa Anyanyo, Health Specialist, UNICEF Enugu Field Office, became necessary following a gap analysis by the State Ministry of Health, for a need to train Health workers on COVID -19 Case Management; Infection, Prevention and Control; as well as Surveillance identified.
To this end,100 skilled and non skilled health workers were pooled from the three Isolation health centers in the state and would be trained in two batches over the week. This, as she revealed, is to ensure that every health worker in Enugu state, involved in the management of COVID-19 cases, are properly trained to perfectly handle cases of infected COVID-19 patients.
Commending UNICEF for initiating the training, One of the resource persons at the training who is a medical Doctor with ESUTH Hospital Eddy Ndibuagu ,who spoke to our correspondent, also lauded them for fully sponsoring the 100 participants equiping them with the required knowledge to fight COVID-19 in the state.
Eddy who is also the Enugu state Infection prevention and control Pillar lead, said it was his duty to work hard and ensure that as per the COVID-19, the infection prevention and control would be fully practiced in Enugu state especially among health workers.
” I really thank UNICEF because the people you see,we have 100 participants drawn from both consultants, Hygienist, to cleaners, people who are working in the three functional Isolation and Treatment center of the state, Teaching Hospital, Diagnostic and then Nsukka, these are the people who are in the front line, so if you don’t equip them well with knowledge of don’t and doe’s as it relates to this problem, one of the greatest thing that will happen to us is having our soldiers fallen before we get to the battle field, and that is what will happen if you have health workers get infected “.
” That is why I like UNICEF for what they are doing, they are trying to empower the health care workers who are the direct front liners in this, ranging from consultants who are steady on call to cleaners every body should be equipped on how to protect yourself, protect other health care workers and protect visitors by so doing we protect our environment from the pandemic spread “.
The Doctor further stated that the ideas is not only prevention and control but surveillance on how to identify suspected persons so as to take them to facilities early enough .
”It also about management, it is an encompassing training”.he added.
Also speaking, one of the participants who also is a medical doctor, Ikekpeazu Chidi with the ESUTH teaching Hospital expressed joy that the training would help them to improve their level of care, with the patients.
” Basically what we are going to get from here is to have a reproved attitude towards our care for our owns selves in terms of our Hygiene, in terms of the way we behave so that we reduce contamination, of our selves, our patients and to help the general public to reduce the insinuation and misinformation and this is the time we talk about scientific information, time we are talking about solidarity not stigmatisation and this is what UNICEF has done basically they are funding every thing here to equip us with the required knowledge to fight the COVID”.Chidi said.
