{"id":22365,"date":"2020-03-30T17:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T11:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=22365"},"modified":"2020-03-30T17:00:06","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T11:30:06","slug":"medical-staff-at-greater-risk-of-severe-disease-from-coronavirus-dak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=22365","title":{"rendered":"Medical staff at greater risk of severe disease from coronavirus: DAK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Srinagar Mar 30:<\/strong> Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are at greater risk of developing severe disease if they get infected with the novel (new) coronavirus.<br \/>\n\u201cThe novel virus seems to hit health care workers harder than others who contract the disease,\u201d said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<br \/>\nDr Nisar said at least 41 health care workers have died in Italy and more than 5,000 medical personnel including doctors, nurses, technicians, ambulance staff and other health employees have been infected by the virus since the outbreak there began.<br \/>\n\u201cAt the epicenter of the novel coronavirus pandemic, Chinese officials have reported that nearly 3,400 health care workers have been infected with 22 deaths.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t know what is making them sicker than other patients. May be it is due to the higher dose of the virus they are receiving,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nDr Nisar said health care workers, especially the frontline are at the highest risk of exposure to the virus.<br \/>\n\u201cMedical staff in high risk areas like ICU have more exposure to infection as the severely ill are more infective, and also they do the higher frequency of medical intervention and aerosol-generating procedures like intubation and respiratory\/ airway suctioning,\u201d he said.<br \/>\nDr Nisar said it is imperative to protect doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and medical students because they are out there saving lives.<br \/>\n\u201cMedical staff must remain safe because if health care workers collapse, the health system will shut down, and people will die,\u201d he said adding that \u201cextensive protective gear is the best way to safeguard clinical staff who treat COVID-19 patients.\u201d<br \/>\nDr Nisar said health care workers must self-monitor, report signs of illness and not engage in patient care while exhibiting respiratory symptoms.<br \/>\n\u201cMany health care workers have medical conditions that elevates risk of severe infection and death. Such work force should be redeployed away from high risk sites,\u201d he added.<br \/>\n\u201cWith COVID-19 crisis likely to stretch over weeks to months, ensuring that health care workers get adequate rest and are supported as health care professional and as an individual will help to keep them going,\u201d said Dr Nisar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar Mar 30: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Monday said doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are at greater risk of developing severe disease if they get infected with the novel (new) coronavirus. \u201cThe novel virus seems to hit health care workers harder than others who contract the disease,\u201d said DAK President Dr Nisar ul Hassan. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}