Durban – A KwaZulu-Natal doctor is at the forefront of the novel coronavirus anti-epidemic task force in Wenzhou City, China, hoping to save as many lives as he can.
Although global deaths and daily infections were on the rise, Dr Brett Singh, from Howick, said he was not afraid as life challenges were an opportunity for those able to make a difference to show themselves as the “salt and light in the world”.
Singh arrived in China in 2011 and studied medicine at Wenzhou Medical University. He is reading for his Master’s in paediatrics.
"I am working with a special anti-epidemic task force team in Wenzhou Medical University, where we help to take daily temperature checks with detailed patient history taking and psychological evaluation of all students and workers in our quarantined area, situated in Chashan Campus. We report any of our findings to our hospital directly so that any cases can be taken to the fever clinic for PCR testing for infection of covid19," Singh said.
He said the team is in charge of any emergency medical cases (non covid19 related) here in the quarantined area and they make sure they are properly managed at the closest hospital.
Singh said any cases that are non covid19 related would be checked at the clinic within the quarantined area.
"We also do online medical consultation so that patient’s that do not necessarily need to visit the hospital, can be dealt with via online methods. We report any severe cases and they are sent isolation wards, whereby the infectious diseases doctors are the ones heading the management of these patients and we work with Chinese Media to help educate and spread true data about covid19 in Wenzhou," Singh said.
Singh, who has worked as a medical student at Grey’s Hospital in Pietermaritzburg, said the hospital was the busiest in Wenzhou and had received enormous support from the government which provided necessary supplies to fight the virus.
He said, compared with South African hospitals, there was a much larger budget available for major hospitals in China: “South African doctors are among the best in the world, they just need the government to help them expedite Polymerase chain reaction test kits for testing for Covid-19 cases.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that 132 citizens who were living in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, would be repatriated. However, Dr Angelique Coetzee, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association, said it was worried about protective gear for doctors.
She said masks were now unavailable worldwide since China was the main producer.
Coetzee said the National Department of Health had already arranged for all the individuals coming back to be taken to a location in Bloemfontein where they would be under quarantine for 21 days.
Popo Maja, Department of Health spokesperson, refuted claims that South Africa did not have sufficient protective gear and said he could neither confirm nor deny that the quarantine site would be in Bloemfontein.