COVID-19 in Africa: care and protection for frontline healthcare workers.

ABSTRACT: Medical staff caring for COVID-19 patients face mental stress, physical exhaustion, separation from families, stigma, and the pain of losing patients and colleagues. Many of them have acquired SARS-CoV-2 and some have died. In Africa, where the pandemic is escalating, there are major gaps in response capacity, especially in human resources and protective equipment. We examine these challenges and propose interventions to protect healthcare workers on the continent, drawing on articles identified on Medline (Pubmed) in a search on 24 March 2020. Global jostling means that supplies of personal protective equipment are limited in Africa. Even low-cost interventions such as facemasks for patients with a cough and water supplies for handwashing may be challenging, as is 'physical distancing' in

SUBMITTER: Chersich MF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7227172 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature