BY Wilfred Okot
Rwotobilo health facility in Patiko Sub County has been gazetted by Gulu District health department, as a special virus treatment centre, in preparation for the deadly Covid19 which is caused by coronavirus.
This was disclosed by Dr. Janani Loum Bishop, the Northern Region Coordinator on Integrated Disease Management (IDM) at Gulu Regional Referral Hospital, during an interview on Tuesday this week.
According to Dr. Loum, the decision was reached about a week ago by the district taskforce who agreed that the facility is best suited for handling the situation based on its earlier experience of dealing with yet another deadly Ebola epidemic.
He said that this decision came after receiving a directive from the Ministry of health that was sent to all the regional referral hospitals, asking them to provide isolation treatment unit to deal with the situation in case it happens.
“The hospital has already received enough protective gears and I urge the locals to embraces the simple preventive measures in order to counter the phenomenon,” he said.
Dr. Loum revealed that health workers in the facility have been well trained in the areas of case detection and responses as well as on personal safety.
Though the country has not reported any single case of the diseases, the public have been cautioned to avoid handshakes, coughing in public places, touching of eyes, nose, congested places and quick isolation of a patient with flu and cough similar to the virus.
According to World Health Organization the virus spreads typically when an infected person coughs or sneezes, spraying droplets that can transmit the virus to anyone in close contact.
Corona viruses also cause flu-like symptoms: Patients might start out with a fever and cough that progress to pneumonia or worse.
