How a Covid-19 patient infected 135 people in a S. African hospital

Kampala- A fifth of care seekers in highly affected countries are contracting the coronavirus from hospitals with over 90,000 health workers infected globally so far.

The most shocking case is published in a report about South Africa’s St Augustine’s Hospital where 135 care seekers and health workers got infected and 15 have died of Covid-19 after one patient introduced the virus to the hospital.

The assessment by scientists from the University of KwaZulu-Natal between April to middle of May, is titled ‘Report into a nosocomial outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) at Netcare St Augustine’s Hospital’ and was published on May 15.

It shows the transmission was caused by poor Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) systems.
The IPC, according to the experts, refers to hand hygiene, prevention of surgical site infections, injection safety and safe use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

On March 9, a patient attending the emergency department to check for Covid-19 at the facility transmitted the infection to another patient present in the department, according to the report.

“The infection then spread rapidly through the hospital, involving patients on at least five wards. The spread through the hospital was facilitated by the frequent movement of patients between and within wards,” says the report published on the university website last week.

“The evidence suggests that indirect contact and fomite transmission were likely to be the predominant modes of patient to patient transmission,” the report read.

“Overall, we estimate that up to 135 infections may have been nosocomially acquired (from within hospital) as a result of the single introduction of the virus to the hospital, accounting for about 14 per cent of all cases in KwaZulu-Natal reported by April 30,” the report further read.

Dr Jane Nakibbuka, an Intensivist at Mulago National Referral Hospital and member of Case Management Committee for Covid-19 at Ministry of Health says the infections often result from failure to observe personal safety among health workers and patients.

“If you are a medical worker and you have flu or cough you can transmit it to the patients. So as a health worker you should have protective gear,” she said.