(As per the linked BBN article) on “isolation areas within health facilities,” and “the hospital [KHMH] area designated for isolation” for possible Covid-19 Coronavirus patients?
Let me list (1 to 10) what I want to say, clearly, because this is not about me. It is about Belize, it is about the nation’s health, and I’m not sure who is advising them:
1. While, as we see (as in my previous post), there was a cruise ship that was turned away (due to Coronavirus fears) and heading towards Mexico, I scanned the local Belize news but saw no mention of this. I am not sure why.
2. Expert epidemiologists and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention project that it’s JUST A MATTER OF TIME before most countries are affected to some degree – especially countries with significant exposure due to air travel, tourism, and otherwise.
3. The situation will be WORSE FOR COUNTRIES with poor health systems (Belize is in this category).
4. I see (as per this news link), that “The ministry also said that health regions have been advised to identify and PREPARE ISOLATION AREAS WITHIN HEALTH FACILITIES, nothing that not all cases require in-hospital care. Breaking Belize News (BBN), spoke with the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Authority (KHMHA) earlier today and received a brief tour of the hospital area designated for isolation.”
5. On Feb. 13, I posted here on FB, and on LinkedIn-Professional, that quarantining passengers on a cruise ship off Japan’s Yokohama was a bad idea … an experiment. It turned out that way. It was a failed experiment for all to read.
6. The KHMH is Belize’s national referral hospital. WHEN THE KHMH GOES DOWN … for whatever reason, e.g. the operating rooms … the entire nation is affected. This is the national referral hospital! I served that institution as the Medical Director for 2 years (2009-2011), so presumably I know how things work … and don’t work.
7. I know what real isolation rooms and isolation wards look like, in the USA, across East Asia, and the UK. FYI: BELIZE HAS NO ISOLATION WARD OR FACILITY THAT REACHES THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD.
8. Even countries with solid hospitals, with solid infectious disease expertise, are having a hard time coping. I am in almost daily contact with medical colleagues from Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea. HEALTH CARE WORKERS are themselves at high risk. Many are infected, despite precautions. Some have died, as exemplified by that self-sacrificial 32-year old Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who first sounded the alarm.
9. They (in 8 above) are having a hard time controlling the spread of this very infectious and poorly understood virus, to which humanity as a whole has not hitherto been exposed. This means that the masses are vulnerable, with no prior immunity.
10. Which expertise has Belize sought? Based on the quote in this article (assuming they got their facts right), the country is considering “isolation areas within health facilities”, including the KHMH?
I’m writing this to John Public because maybe they’ll listen to you (and not to me).
Let your Belizean authorities know that if they ignorantly wish to cripple an already challenged health system (with NO REAL ISOLATION WARDS AND EXPERTISE FOR THIS KIND OF VIRUS), by inviting such potential patients into any district hospital and the KHMH, this is a formula for potential national disaster, and not just confined to healthcare.
FOR THE NATION’S SAKE: Tell your Belizean authorities to seek REAL EXPERTISE (not just WHO and PAHO, since these are politically driven organizations that often say what politicians want them to say, as is clear in this Covid-19 pandemic … which hasn’t been so labeled because of politics) but also from US-CDC or experts from Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Harvard (Belizeans in the Diaspora can arrange this).
Or maybe Belize can just keep its “fingers crossed”, “knock on wood”, and hope we never get a case, and proceed with the status quo … and “Que sera, sera”!