TAPPITA, Nimba – The Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital, Liberia’s second-largest hospital, has announced strategies it is employing to protect its staff and the community against the Coronavirus pandemic.

As the number of confirmed Coronavirus cases in the country increases and Tappita has now recorded its first case and death, the hospital will undoubtedly play a key role in the government’s effort to defeat the virus.

Dr. Saygbay Vanyabah, the chief executive officer of the hospital, said his team would build on the experience gained during the Ebola crisis to tackle this epidemic. He noted that health workers are already being trained to identify suspicious cases and the hospital’s staff also carrying out community engagement efforts to educate Tappita residents about the danger of the virus.

A mini-isolation center has also been set up for patients showing signs and symptoms of the Coronavirus, he added. Moreover, Vanyabah said the hospital has procured sufficient personal protective equipment to serve the hospital for the next three months if the number of confirmed cases increase at the current rate.

However, he warns that the hospital will need more masks and gloves, in addition to functional ambulances that are suitable for the tough roads in the region. Vanyabah said the only functional ambulance the hospital has is too low to travel out of the city, which makes it difficult to respond to emergencies. Additionally, the hospital spends too much to repair ambulances that have outlived their usefulness.

Although he said COVID-19, the disease caused by the Coronavirus, is a new phenomenon, the hospital would be implementing universal precautions regarding infectious control as part of their preparedness plan.

Vanyabah expects the Tappita area to be a hotspot for the virus because it hosts the largest hospital in the region and is located on a major highway that often receives travelers from nearby Guinea and Ivory Coast and from communities in southeastern Liberia.

Vanyabah reiterated concerns that the hospital has been positioned to play a major role in dealing with health emergencies. Besides, the former Ebola Treatment Unit that needs rehabilitation to become an isolation unit for the Coronavirus pandemic, the hospital also hosts a Regional Reference Laboratory.

The lab was set up a few years ago to test specimens of infectious diseases collected from health facilities across the region because of the distance and time it takes to reach the National Reference Laboratory in Monrovia. However, the lab is incapable of testing for the Coronavirus because since ACCEL, an NGO that was giving technical and financial support to the laboratory, left, no new group has taken over, Vanyabah said.

He said the hospital administration and the community have agreed to enter a public-private enterprise agreement with a new organization that has expressed interest in operating the lab. When this is done, he said the lab will be fully capable of providing reagents, and repairing and replacing equipment at no cost to the hospital.

He added: “On a quarterly basis, depending on the agreement, we will go and see how much has been generated. If profit has been made after they have deducted their expenses, we are given some of this profit and we can reinvest it in something else. And the whole operating of that lab will be the responsibility of the organization and not us.”

For now, all samples must be sent to Monrovia for testing. Tappita, along with the rest of Nimba, begins implementation of a stay home order tonight, at the order of President George Weah.

Featured photo by Jerry Myers