Medical Director reveals how he has unknowingly infected patients with coronavirus

A Medical Director (MD) says he may have unknowingly infected some of his patients with COVID-19 without knowing his status.

Narrating his ordeal to Joy News, the MD who works in one of the tertiary institutions in the country and wants to remain anonymous stated that he had been unknowingly treating a COVID-19-positive patient in his medical facility.

He explained that this patient did not show any symptoms of COVID-19.

That patient, unfortunately, is now deceased.

“After that, I had opted to test for the virus but within the 15-day period, before my results were released, I came to work. I was at work regularly; I did consultations, I touched patients, I treated patients, I talked to patients, I examined patients, and only God knows how many of them I might have unknowingly infected,” he said.

He indicated that on arrival at his medical facility, the patient showed symptoms of another ailment that was being investigated. Other conditions were discovered in the course of the investigation but not COVID-19.

The patient was later referred to the ICU where the team demanded a COVID-19 test before admission.

After the test, the patient had to be admitted while awaiting her results because her condition was getting worse. The test result was positive but only became available after she had died.

At the time, the MD and his medical team who treated the patient had resumed work and were going about their normal duties.

After a 15-day period, the MD tested positive for COVID-19.

“Some of the doctors taking care of the patient, so far as I know, didn’t go [and] test. I volunteered and went to test only to find out three weeks later that I was positive. And I’m sure it was communicated to the hospital [where the patient] was transferred to[…] that the patient had died of the pandemic,” he added.

The MD noted that the lack of PPEs in the various health facilities may, however, cause some doctors to transmit the virus to their patients unknowingly and pleaded that test results must be released early enough. “It should come hours at most a day or two of testing somebody,” he said.