The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, says it has placed three of its health workers on isolation after their contact with a patient who died of COVID-19.
Dr Ibrahim Mustafa, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) of LASUTH, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos.
Mustafa said that two doctors and a nurse had contact with the patient, who later died on April 3 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos.
He said that the patient was attended to in the vehicle that conveyed him to LASUTH, thus reduced his exposure to health workers and other patients.
According to him, there was high suspicion of the patient being a COVID-19 case, and the patient was referred to LUTH due to insufficient bed space at LASUTH as at the time he was presented at the facility.
“The patient did not divulge his travel history and underlying medical conditions to the health workers, but the health workers were suspicious based on his symptoms and warning to exercise caution while attending to patients.
“The health workers that attended to the patient took necessary precautions, but based on the advice of LASUTH Infectious Diseases Consultant, the doctor and nurses that had contact with the patient had been placed on isolation,” the CMAC chairman said.
He urged the public to always volunteer accurate information about their travel history and medical conditions to health workers, toward assisting to provide right diagnosis and treatment for patients.
The CMAC said that there was need to increase sensitisation among the public that COVID-19 infection was not a death sentence, adding that volunteering information and early treatment would increase chances of recovery.
Mustafa advised health workers to continue to maintain vigilance and ensure universal precaution while attending to patients.
NAN recalls that the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, had disclosed that the deceased patient was
55-year-old Nigerian male who lived in Holland, but returned to Lagos two weeks ago.
Abayomi said that the patient had a kidney transplant seven years ago, and was also diabetic.
According to him, the deceased was on strong immune suppression drugs for the kidney transplant, and was admitted at LUTH on the night of April 2, on presumption of complications from the kidney transplant.
The commissioner noted that the patient did not provide full account of his travel history or medical circumstances to the attending doctors in keeping with the global trend and to enable guided treatment for COVID-19 related vulnerability, due to severe underlying ill health.
Abayomi said that the deceased, however, demonstrated some signs of an upper respiratory chest infection.
He said that the patient later tested positive for COVID-19, but died early hours of April 3 from a cardiac arrest. (NAN)