WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) \u2014 Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Carissa F Etienne, has expressed alarm that 570,000 health workers have been infected and 2,500 killed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Americas, including the Caribbean, stating that health workers are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have the highest number of health care workers infected in the world,\u201d Dr Etienne disclosed during a press conference at PAHO headquarters here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith almost 13.5 million COVID 19 cases and over 469,000 deaths reported in the Americas, including around 4,000 deaths a day in our region, the scale of this pandemic is unprecedented,\u201d she warned. \u201cNo other group has felt this more acutely than the very men and women who make up our health workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Etienne noted that \u201cin the US and Mexico \u2014 which have some of the highest case counts in the world \u2014 health workers represent one in every seventh case\u201d, adding that these two countries account for nearly 85 per cent of all COVID deaths among health care workers in the region.<\/p>\n
To combat these trends, she said, \u201ccountries must ensure that health workers can do their jobs safely.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will require maintaining sufficient supplies of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) and ensuring that everyone is effectively trained in infection control to avoid risking their own health,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Dr Etienne also urged countries to ensure safe working conditions and fair pay for health workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is particularly important for women, the majority of our health work force, who must be supported to fully participate and lead the response to the pandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The PAHO director cited several reasons for the high rates of infection in health workers in the Americas, noting that, as countries scrambled to respond to the virus, \u201cmany health workers were redirected to the outbreak response without sufficient training to protect themselves as they were treating COVID 19 patients.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As patients surged, she said \u201chospitals became overcrowded and many were too slow to implement triaging protocols.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis meant that COVID 19 patients were exposed to others who may have been seeking care for different conditions, and soon everyone carried a risk of infection, leaving health workers more vulnerable,\u201d Dr Etienne said.<\/p>\n
She noted that early in the pandemic, PPEs were scarce and that health workers were \u201cforced to reuse masks and gowns, seek alternatives or forgo protection altogether to care for those in need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maintaining sufficient supplies of PPE and ensuring that everyone is effectively trained in infection control to avoid risking their own health is key, Dr Etienne said.<\/p>\n
She said PAHO has been supporting countries in building designated triage and case management zones to protect health workers and patients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have also donated over 31 million masks and more than 1.4 million gloves and gowns to protect our frontline response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Dr Etienne said months of operating under enormous pressure have also had strong mental and psychological impacts on health workers, including isolation from family and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cShockingly, dozens of health workers have been assaulted over the last few months as a result of the public’s misplaced fear, misinformation or frustration from this pandemic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
PAHO urged member states, in a recent epidemiological alert, to \u201cstrengthen the capacity of healthcare services across all levels and to equip healthcare workers with the appropriate resources and training in order to ensure an adequate and timely response to the pandemic within the healthcare system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) \u2014 Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Carissa F Etienne, has expressed alarm that 570,000 health workers have been infected and 2,500 killed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=1108%2C813&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=1108%2C813&ssl=1",1108,813,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg",1108,813,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg",1108,813,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=300%2C220&ssl=1",300,220,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=1024%2C751&ssl=1",1024,751,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=1108%2C813&ssl=1",1108,813,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?fit=1108%2C813&ssl=1",1108,813,true],"mh-magazine-slider":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=1030%2C438&ssl=1",1030,438,true],"mh-magazine-content":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=678%2C381&ssl=1",678,381,true],"mh-magazine-large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=678%2C509&ssl=1",678,509,true],"mh-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=326%2C245&ssl=1",326,245,true],"mh-magazine-small":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/drealfmgrenada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Dr.-Carissa-F.-Etienne.jpg?resize=80%2C60&ssl=1",80,60,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Health<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) \u2014 Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Carissa F Etienne, has expressed alarm that 570,000 health workers have been infected and 2,500 killed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) in [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6704,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703\/revisions\/6704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}