Speciality medical training for COVID-19 response

In order to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health will be focusing on speciality medical training for health workers.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, revealed that the training will include how the virus affects persons with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other medical illnesses. He believes that this will enable health workers to better treat patients diagnosed with the virus.

“We ourselves are crafting new programmes for medical doctors who are involved in the direct treatment of COVID-19 patients and since the disease affect almost every organ of the body, we are looking at specialised sessions,” Dr Anthony explained.

He emphasised the importance of recognising how the virus affects persons with comorbidities at an early stage and for doctors to be better equipped with the relevant knowledge and skills to treat such patients.

Dr Anthony reminded that persons, who are directly involved in responding to the virus, undergo continuous training sessions with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE).

“A number of our senior staff of the ministry [Tuesday] participated in a WHO meeting where we are looking at the different mutations of the virus and I think now we are pretty much aware of the types of mutations that this virus has undergone.”

According to Dr Anthony, the ministry is also now aware of what to look for with the new strains and the consequences that come with the new strain.

The knowledge gained, Dr Anthony explained, is further passed on to doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff.