Without maximum protection, it is feared that more health workers will die, and this could have a serious impact on the country’s Covid-19 response.
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ANITA YOSSIHARA/Satrio Pangarso Wisanggeni
·4 minutes read
KOMPAS/YOLA SASTRA
Former Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Central Executive, Ahmad Syafii Maarif, left the location of the Prof. Dr. Hamka II Integrated Modern Islamic Boarding School in Padang, West Sumatra, Tuesday (3/9/2019).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The safety of health workers who continue to struggle on the front lines in treating Covid-19 patients must be a priority. Without maximum protection, it is feared that more health workers will die, and this could have a serious impact on the country’s Covid-19 response.
Former Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad “Buya” Syafii Maarif raised the call on Sunday (13/9/2020) in a special message to President Joko Widodo.
The steering committee member of the Pancasila Ideology Development Council (BPIP) expressed his concern over the death of 115 doctors and many other health workers from contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Indonesia. As one of the oldest people in this country, my heart shook and cried out upon reading the news about the deaths of doctors, which stood at 115 this morning, plus a large number of medical workers have also died,” Buya wrote in the opening of his letter to the President.
Buya went on to urge the government to pay more attention to the safety of health workers. Otherwise, it would become more difficult for Indonesia to control the epidemic that has raged in the country for half a year.
"Pak (Mr.) President, please instruct the Health Minister and his staff to do everything possible to save the lives of these doctors. If this continues, this nation might be shaken by doctors dying every day while doing their humanitarian work at the front," Buya wrote.
Your Excellency, the President of the Republic of Indonesia. As one of the oldest people in this country, my heart shook and cried out upon reading the news about the deaths of doctors
Kompas/AGUS SUSANTO
Medical personnel are in an open tent during a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or swab test at the Puskesmas Duren Sawit District, East Jakarta, Monday (31/8/2020).
According to data as of 10 Sept. from the mitigation team of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), out of the total 115 deaths among doctors, 57 were general practitioners, 51 were specialist doctors and the remaining seven were medical professors. The highest number of deaths among medical doctors occurred in East Java with 29 doctors, followed by North Sumatra with 21 doctors and then Jakarta with 15 doctors.
IDI mitigation team chairman Adib Khumaidi said that the doctors could have contracted Covid-19 while treating patients with the disease or while providing medical intervention for patients who later turned out to have Covid-19. In addition, they could also become infected from nonmedical circumstances.
Given the situation, Adib urged the government to take a firm stance and crack down on people who did not implement the health protocol. "Government officials are also expected to set an example," he said in a press release.
The Health Ministry’s secretary-general Oscar Primadi, Communications Public Service Bureau head Widyawati, and Covid-19 Task Force chief Doni Monardo were unreachable for their comments on Buya\'s letter. None responded to either calls from Kompas or questions sent via short message service (SMS).
A doctor displays a vaccine for COVID-19 coronavirus at Padjadjaran university educational hospital in Bandung, West Java on July 6, 2020, in preparation for efforts to vaccinate 1,620 volunteers in the community next week.
In the UK, it was reported that the phase III clinical trial had resumed for the Covid-19 candidate vaccine developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The clinical trial was halted last week due to a dangerous reaction that was detected in one of the volunteers.
Oxford University announced the resumption of the clinical trial on Saturday evening (12/9), Indonesia time. In its official statement, it said that an independent committee and Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had concluded its investigation into the matter. "As per the recommendations of the independent committee and the MHRA, the clinical trials will resume in the UK," said the official statement from Oxford.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal that cited a document provided to volunteers of the clinical trial in the UK, the independent investigation concluded that the symptoms of transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, that had appeared in one volunteer was not related to the vaccine.
Apart from the UK, phase III clinical trials for the Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate vaccine are also ongoing in India, Brazil and South Africa. The Oxford-AstraZeneca has also commenced a phase III clinical trial in the United States. Although the UK trial has resumed, it is unknown whether the other trials outside the UK have resumed.
Earlier, chief executive Erick Thohir of the Covid-19 and National Economic Recovery Committee said that the government was also exploring the possibility of Indonesia obtaining a supply of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine (Kompas, 10/9/2020).
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