At the front line of pandemic prevention and control

Update: 27-02-2021 | 16:33:14

In the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic, the teams of doctors were really "the soldiers in blouses" at the front lines of disease prevention and control. Accompanying this team in the ‘war’ against the ‘enemy’ of Covid-19, we got to know beautiful stories about the spirit of ‘Medical acts like mother’ and the silent sacrifices of "the soldiers in blouse" for people's health.

Doctors dine in haste the bread instead of meals to fulfill the duties

The sleepless nights at the front lines

After receiving the news of the first case of Covid-19 infection in the community in Binh Duong at Ca Na hamlet of An Binh commune, Phu Giao district, we, together with the delegation of Binh Duong provincial medical staff and doctors immediately set off. In order to pull me out of my fear of going into the pandemic outbreak, specialist doctor Huynh Thanh Ha, the Deputy Director of the Department of Health said: “Come with me to finish the epidemic. You, me, and everyone can become a definite F exposure but the ultimate goal is to stamp out the epidemic and protect health, and regain safety for the people. It doesn't matter if we become of the F, it's okay." Without much thinking, I let go of the words: "But I'm still so scared," making the whole convoy burst into laughter.

At 2:00, our car stopped at the Frontline Headquarters in Phuoc Hoa commune. Here, the classrooms were used as a place of long-term ‘combat.’ Behind full masks, members of the Steering Committee for the prevention and control of epidemics in Phu Giao district expressed concern as the positive case of Covid-19 infection in the community has been confirmed for the first time Phu Giao. The work of tracing and stamping out the epidemic was still scattering. Keeping the mind full of optimism not panicking but very cautious, the delegation implemented a plan to stamp out speed tracking, making use of all the time for tracing the related cases through the night. Doctor Tran Van Chung, Deputy Director of Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control ran the sampling team to arrange the fastest and most accurate sampling in order to deliver samples to the Pasteur Institute of Ho Chi Minh City for testing in the morning.

A female nurse working at concentrated isolation of Bau Bang District Medical Center passes out

During 40 years of disease preventive work and being experienced many dangerous epidemics of cholera, influenza A/H1N1, measles, and dengue fever and sometimes had to eat and sleep in the forest to help eliminate the epidemic, for Dr. Huynh Thanh Ha, this was the most memorable and special time of fighting against an epidemic. The Covid-19 positive case was a sister selling chickens with complicated travel schedules from and to many places of Phuoc Vinh market and markets of Tam Lap, Vinh Hoa, and Tan Long, so it was very difficult for them to tracing her routes. To screen all the F1 and F2 exposure related to her was like ‘finding a needle in the seabed.’

The idea of setting up a series of points to help people make medical declarations in the market areas and the places where she sells chicken immediately came into play. The people of Phu Giao agreed to support and strictly implemented the message of ‘masks - disinfection - distance – no gathering - medical declaration’ and aroused a movement to discover cases of returning from epidemic areas without medical report and actual quarantine. Under the strong and drastic direction of Dr. Huynh Thanh Ha, Phu Giao district rapid response team quickly tracked 387 cases of close contact with the patients and put them in isolation. However, to evaluate the epidemiology of Covid-19 in Phu Giao district, right on February 6, Dr. Ha directed the implementation of sampling in the community for 877 cases.

The cold bread meals

The days of following the provincial medical officers and doctors who participated in anti-epidemic actions, many images in Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control were truly moving. Dr. Nguyen Hong Chuong, Director of Department of Health, for more than 10 days and nights hardly came home. Cold bread meals with medical staff were normal. Taking the hall as the office, taking the chairs as the beds to rest, Dr. Chuong has directed the healthcare network to fast trace 700 F1 cases and more than 2,300 F2 cases derived from the 6 positive cases. In order to accurately assess the Covid-19 epidemic situation in the province, he directed and deployed the whole department to take samples for screening testing against more than 1,400 workers from 50 factories and close to 1,200 people in residential areas. There were nights when he fell asleep in the hall of the Center for Disease Control, startled to wake up, his mouth was dry, his body was hot and cold, but then all was let out in a sigh of relief as he received negative test results. .

The most impressive to me in the days of epidemic prevention and control was probably specialist doctor Nguyen Thanh Danh, Director of Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control. Having a tall and lively figure, lovely dark complexion, Dr. Danh directly advised the plan of implementing and operating the professional network of epidemic prevention and control. In recent years, Dr. Danh has been both a direct professional adviser to the leaders of Department of Health and has directed Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control to operate the system of tracing, isolating and handling related cases to Covid-19. In addition to this responsibility, Dr. Danh is also in charge of receiving and transporting test samples throughout the province for results as a basis for advising the entire system on disease prevention and control. It can be said that by the advisory work, Dr. Danh has been trained to become a leader of well experience to lead Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control to become stronger and stronger.

To be present and witness by our own eyes the hard work of the "soldiers in blouses" was to fully understand their hardships, sacrifices and dedication. In the front line against the epidemics, nurses, doctors and medical staff have always been proactive and flexible in all situations, and, thus, bread was the most convenient meals. On the day when the epidemic broke out, the workload was so heavy that all nurses and doctors had to work through the night. Many medical staff at Department of Health, Binh Duong provincial Center for Disease Control, Medical Center of Phu Giao District or Medical Center of Thuan An City have to take turns working through the night, but in the next morning they still had to keep pace with the new job reel. However, behind the masks and the hot protective gears worn for many hours was still smiles, enthusiasm and dedication of the medical staff being hopeful to repel the epidemic at the soonest.

Dr. Tran Tan Tai, Head of Medical Operations under Department of Health said: “We worked day and night to complete our tasks. Every time we see a stable health quarantine person and the test result is negative, every time we receive a notification that no infected person in the whole province, we are extremely excited and see the great significance of our work to contribute to the success in the battle against Covid-19 epidemic."

Reported by Kim Ha – Translated by Vi Bao

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At the front line of pandemic prevention and control

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