A doctor treating COVID-19 patients at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, has contracted the disease.

The President of the National Association of Resident Doctors [NARD], Dr Aliyu Sokomba, said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.

Sokomba said six doctors had died of Lassa fever while one unnamed doctor had been infected by COVID-19.

He said,

“At the moment, as health workers continue to play their part in containing the spread of the disease, the health workers are not protected. One of our colleagues died just yesterday from Lassa fever. This is the state of our health care institutions and that is the fate of most health care workers in the country.

“Dr. Philp Dzuana is the sixth doctor to have died of Lassa fever in the country and very little is being done to getting this kind of situation under control.

“Just yesterday again, one of our doctors in ISTH, Iruaa, had tested positive to the Covid-19 disease. What that means is that these doctors that are testing positive to various diseases are being left alone to take care of themselves.

“There is no form of life insurance for them. There is no form of compensation. To say the least, what these doctors benefit at the end of every month as hazard allowance is N5, 0000. So, we are worried that if victory against Covid-19, Lassa fever outbreak in the country is to be achieved, the welfare and wellbeing of doctors and other health workers who are on the frontline must be secured.”

Sokomba said if doctors are not well taken care of, many of them would be lured to other countries like the United States.

He said even the US was facing a shortage of medical professionals and was already gradually open its borders to health care providers to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

The NARD President, therefore, called on the government to do more.

“We have yet to know the plan of the government with regards to measures that have been put in place to secure and protect health care workers in the country. We have not heard of any arrangement to ensure that when these doctors get exposed, they get some kind of compensations. This is what is obtainable in any saner climes,” Sokomba said.