•’Situation spells doom’
•We may not need many ventilators – FG

By Chioma Obinna

Sunday Vanguard looks at the missing tools that could make a huge difference in the fight against coronavirus in a nation of 200 million people.

As of April 11, 2020, there were 305 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across 17 states in Nigeria.

58 have been discharged while seven deaths were recorded so far nationwide. Lagos is topping the chart with 163 cases.

Experts predicted that Nigeria may experience the worst-case scenario in the coming weeks.

How prepared is the country to tackle the imminent rise, particularly, patients requiring intensive care?

Nigeria even before the advent of coronavirus lacked critical medical equipment.

Despite the growing cases of coronavirus, the country has no adequate isolation centres, face masks, hand gloves, ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment, PPE, needed to treat cases of COVID-19.

They are just luxuries across hospitals in the country.

300 ventilators

Findings by Sunday Vanguard showed that at the beginning of the outbreak, Nigeria had less than 300 ventilators and weeks after, the number has not increased tremendously.

There are states without a single ventilator. However, some states have started procuring limited numbers.

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For instance, in Lagos, there are over 20 ventilators, according to the state Commissioner for Health, Prof Akin Abayomi.

Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, has four.

In Bayelsa State, there are five ventilators.

Of the five, three were stationed at Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa while two were kept at the state isolation centre, Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri.

In Anambra State, Sunday Vanguard gathered that there are 11 ventilators and 20 oxygen concentrators in the three isolation centres at Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, Nnewi, General Hospital, Onitsha, and NYSC Orientation Camp, Umuawulu.

Biologists

Some biologists recently employed by the state government are still undergoing training.

Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Patrick Okundia, said 30 ventilators were distributed across the isolation centres.

Ebonyi State has four, according to the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezurike.

Enugu, it was gathered,has the highest number of ventilators.

The University Teaching Hospital, Enugu, UNTH, has about six ventilators while Enugu State University, ESUTH, Parklane has four.

In Abuja, there are seven isolation centres. However, efforts to get the number of ventilators in the state proved abortive but it was gathered that Chinese medical experts came with 50 ventilators.

Report

In Kano State, the Deputy Governor, Dr. Nasir Yusuf Gawuna, who is the Chairman of the Task Force Committee on COVID-19, in a report, disclosed that there are 27 ventilators at the newly converted isolation centre at the Kwanar Dawaki Pfizer Hospital, in addition to unspecified number at different hospitals.

At the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), there are eight ventilators in its Intensive Care Unit.

In Ogun State, Sunday Vanguard gathered that there are 24 functional respiratory ventilators.

In Delta, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, in a report, said there are 19 ventilators.

Adamawa State has five ventilators with two at the Federal Medical Centre, one at Adamawa-German Hospital, Yola, and two at the COVID-19 Isolation Centre.

In Kwara State, Sunday Vanguard gathered that there are eight new ventilators in its 60-bed capacity isolation centre at Sobi Specialist Hospital, Ilorin.

Oxygen concentrators

Katsina State has only five ventilators available at the two designated isolation centres.

Three are at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Katsina, while two are at the state government-owned General Amadi Rimi Specialist Hospital.

Borno State boasts of 15 functional ventilators and three mobile ventilators.

In Yobe State, there are three ventilators at the isolation centre in Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital, Damaturu, two oxygen concentrators and one physio-control defibrillator.

Benue State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sunday Ongbabo, said there are six ventilators in the state.

Four of the ventilators are at the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi, while the remaining two are at the isolation centre in Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Makurdi.

Bauchi State has four ventilators in one hospital among the designated isolated centres.

Kaduna State has two functional ventilators in the isolation centre but our source could not confirm the total number in the state.

While findings showed that Nigeria has less than 250 ventilators in 17 states, medical experts described the figure as grossly inadequate.

Suicide mission

Professor Edamisan Temiye, a haematology oncologist/paediatrician at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, said despite the fact that ventilators are very important equipment, Nigeria had been in short supply of the equipment before now.

He said:”Ventilators are critical equipment needed for other respiratory illnesses but many Nigerians have lost their lives due to lack of ventilators. Here in Nigeria, we have not invested much in having ventilators. That has been a challenge in treating critical patients in the intensive care unit. For a very long time, government seemed not to be serious about it.

. “We need specialists, especially for those who have been infected. We need more isolation centres.”

On PPE, he added: “Doctors, nurses and other health workers are on a suicide mission. That they are taking care of patients does not mean they should wipe out their family.

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“At the beginning of this pandemic, we had between about 300 both in the public and private hospitals nationwide. Why government has not tripled the number is what I don’t know. Before the pandemic there had been a shortage of ventilators.

”If Nigeria had no enough ventilators for people who are really sick, now that COVID-19 has increased the number of people that will need it, what will be the fate of Nigerians should there be more complicated cases?

“We have less than 300 ventilators in the whole of Nigeria. I expected government to have increased our ventilators to either 1500 or 2000 by now.”

According to a pulmonologist at the board of the American Lung Association, David Hill, a ventilator is a fairly fancy piece of technological equipment that is designed to breathe for somebody who is unable to breathe effectively on their own.

A premium or high-acuity ventilators most commonly found in hospital ICUs, typically have a PSOL gas delivery design and can currently cost between $25,000 and $50,000.

On PPE, Temiye added that “it is disastrous to manage COVID-19 patients if we don’t have it.”

FG reacts

Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria may not need many of the ventilators for the treatment of patients suffering from COVID-19.

He added that most of the cases being recorded were being managed without ventilators.

According to him, there is no country in the world that has enough ventilators.

“We have an arrangement that makes it possible that if you need more ventilators in Abuja we can send them from Lagos. If Lagos needs more ventilators, we can bring them from Enugu or anywhere so that we can be able to meet our needs as they are. The number of ventilators you have is not exactly what will determine your survival,” he added.

Vanguard