In 25 days, coronavirus entered eight healthcare facilities in BiH

By Amra Vrabac

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The virus must not enter healthcare facilities, was the key sentence repeated for days by everyone involved in the fight against coronavirus. The first such warning came from the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo (KCUS) when a press conference was held on February 25, emphasizing that it was not a question of whether the coronavirus would come to BiH, but when. Just ten days later, on March 5, the first case was confirmed in BiH. Today, BiH has 358 confirmed cases, nine deaths, and seventeen recovered.

However, the virus has entered. Not one, not two, but eight healthcare facilities. When doctors and medical staff get infected, the healthcare system directly suffers. In a time when we are fighting an invisible but strong enemy, such news does not bring optimism.

Considering that both infected individuals and all their contacts are sent into isolation, we can already talk about hundreds of doctors and other medical and non-medical staff who are outside the healthcare system at crucial moments.

The first hospital where the virus was detected was the University Hospital Mostar. Several doctors and medical staff, as well as patients, were in isolation. Due to coronavirus infection, the maternity ward was transferred to another Mostar hospital, "Safet Mujić." The first patient who had a coronavirus infection died in that hospital today.

The second healthcare facility is the Konjic General Hospital, where the hospital's chief epidemiologist, Armina Lazarević, is in isolation after her husband was infected with coronavirus. Konjic is a hotspot for coronavirus after the March 11 celebration at Igman Konjic and the subsequent party. Although 20 days have passed since then, 100 people have been tested, and 26 are positive. The hospital director, Suzana Sokolović-Begić, said today that this is a very small number of tests, and there were no tests in Konjic despite the situation.

The virus was detected in the private healthcare facility Medical Institute Bayer in Tuzla, where, in addition to medical staff, patients who underwent surgery were infected, as well as those who were there earlier and transmitted the virus to other healthcare facilities. Given the family connections of employees in this institution and the University Clinical Center (UKC) Tuzla, as well as the irresponsible behavior of some doctors who moved around and contacted dozens of people, a cluster has spread, encompassing hundreds of people. Yesterday alone, 50 samples were taken from UKC Tuzla. The remaining staff has been redistributed, considering the number of staff in isolation, but there is a justified fear that a crisis will arise if the number of infected people increases. Tuzla is currently the largest hotspot.

A patient who was previously operated on in Tuzla was hospitalized at the Zenica Cantonal Hospital, where it was determined that he had coronavirus. A redistribution was urgently made, and 45 hospital employees are in isolation. They will only be tested in a few days to avoid false negatives. There is particular fear for patients being treated in the hospital.

The virus was also confirmed in a doctor at the Doboj hospital, although the infection did not spread to his colleagues. A doctor at the UKC of Republika Srpska is also infected, and later the virus was confirmed in two more colleagues. For now, there is no fear that the infection could spread further in the hospital.

As for Sarajevo, both KCUS and the General Hospital "Prim. dr. Abdulah Nakaš" have so far avoided infection through strict controls and triage of patients upon entering the hospitals and are operating at full capacity, or in accordance with the current situation.

However, the virus has appeared in some other healthcare facilities. After the death of 52-year-old A.K., who tested positive for coronavirus after her death, the clinic in Hrasnica was closed, and about twenty people who were in contact with the deceased are in isolation at the Ilidža Health Center. Details on whether there are infected individuals are not yet known. There are nine clusters in the Sarajevo Canton, and 1,880 people are under health supervision.

The director of the Public Health Institute of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Davor Pehar, said today that if a larger number of healthcare workers become infected in one facility, crisis plans have been developed to respond to such a challenge.

"The possibility of sending healthcare workers from one institution to another is not impossible," said Pehar.

If the spread of the virus to healthcare facilities is not stopped, BiH could face a major crisis. Therefore, the calls from experienced doctors and professionals for reserve teams and a "clean" hospital remain an urgent task for the authorities.

Recommendations regarding providing truthful information, wearing masks, and maintaining a distance of one and a half meters, and strict adherence to them, should prevent the spread of infection, at least when it comes to mass outbreaks.