Experts want meticulous monitoring

Although the government is working to prevent the novel coronavirus from entering the country, it is not getting all personnel of the health sector involved, say public health specialists.

They said luckily, there was still no confirmed case of coronavirus infection in the country. But the situation could be bad if an infected person enters the country due to limitations in screening.

"The situation in China has become serious as the country was 'reluctant' at the very beginning of this disease outbreak. We have to learn from China. They have assigned necessary human resources, integrated all government and private organisations and built makeshift hospitals. Have we such capacity? the [national preparedness] plan should have been ready much earlier," Prof Muzaherul Huq, founder of Public Health Foundation of Bangladesh, told The Daily Star yesterday.

According to the government high-ups, their focus is on preventing the coronavirus from getting into the country. As part of this, the government has scaled up its screening process at all air, sea, and land ports.

The screening is only based on checking high body temperature, cough and respiratory illness using thermal scanners or infrared hand-held thermometers first. If anybody's body temperature is found high, health workers at ports check them further, they said.

Besides, any suspected patients are being admitted to the isolation unit of the government hospitals across the country.

But experts said this process would not work if any inbound passenger takes medicine like aspirin. They suggested that no suspected patients should be taken to hospital directly, as there is a chance of spreading the virus if they are infected.

"So, screening should be special for those coming from any affected country," Prof Md Nazrul Islam, former vice-chancellor of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told this correspondent.

The virologist warned that the situation could be bad if the government was slow in responding.

On Friday, the joint commission of WHO and China issued a five-point advice for the uninfected countries in which it urged preparedness to immediately activate the highest level of emergency response mechanisms to trigger the all-of-government and all-of society approach that is essential for early containment of the coronavirus outbreak.

It has suggested testing national preparedness plans in light of the new knowledge on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical measures, largescale case isolation, respiratory support capacities and rigorous contact tracing and management.

The commission has also recommended testing all atypical pneumonia patients for the coronavirus virus and adding testing for the virus to existing influenza surveillance systems.

In parallel with enforcing measures of infection prevention, it has asked to assess the general population's understanding of the virus and adjust national health promotion materials and activities accordingly. It urged engagement of clinical champions to communicate with the media.

Prof Muzaherul said, "Why experts from other government institutions like BSMMU are not involved in the national preparedness plan? Why test of any suspected coronavirus patient is done at one place?"

He proposed checklists for preparedness: preparing health workers, special isolation and quarantine arrangements for suspected or confirmed patients, arrangement for treating them at home, and awareness campaign.

"Screening is not enough for prevention. Educating the whole population is the key. Once it could be done, the country would not only be safe from this coronavirus, but also this generation would be safe from any such virus in future," said Prof Muzaherul, also a former adviser of WHO's South East Asia region.

He also recommended initiating a national campaign for educating people on three specific issues -- frequent handwashing, ideal sneezing manner, and staying three feet away from flu infected people.

Talking to this newspaper yesterday, Prof Sabrina Flora, director of

Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said, "The preparedness plan would be finalised soon."

Currently, the IEDCR alone has the capacity to detect the new coronavirus.

Earlier, Prof Abul Kalam Azad, director general of the Directorate General of Health Services, said, "We will have everything in the national action plan -- what measures would be taken at different levels of emergencies."