nfectious disease control is an important frontline. It is a very important job. All medical personnel must work amidst risks and challenges.
In the previous episode, the admin took everyone to see the work of medical personnel in all sectors, both the front that we see when walking into the hospital, the behind the scenes that we have never seen, and the small details that many people may not have known before that there are such duties. Everyone is patient and sacrificing in order to get through this COVID-19 crisis without wanting to increase the number of daily losses.
This time, the admin will take everyone back to the starting point, but it’s a little before the starting point, before there were field hospitals, before everyone got to know COVID-19 correctly, there was a first checkpoint that we had to get to know first, find information first, and take risks first. The admin is talking about Infectious Control (IC) or in short, by Ms. Patcharee Jenjaroenrat, Head of Infectious Control, Thammasat University Hospital, who will take us back to the starting point.
“Our job is to see the virus before anyone else.”
If seeing the virus means knowing about it, finding information, finding ways to transmit it, symptoms, and treatment, then yes, infectious disease control is that. They need to know about the virus first, urgently study it comprehensively, to disseminate the results of the study to others, and to set policies or measures to deal with it as quickly as possible.
“Learning is taught only by textbooks and situations in front of you.”
As it is a new disease, what should be done must be found in textbooks, processed, and then faced with it. Going to work in the field has become a job that must be flexible. Ms. Patcharee gave an example of one incident where the team had planned to move a patient in a certain way to avoid spreading the infection. But when it came time to do it, it couldn’t be done. Therefore, immediate problems had to be solved urgently. And this is infectious disease control work.
“We are the ones who have to go in first.”
During the period when COVID-19 began to spread in Thailand, the infectious disease control work had to go to the area first, without knowing how to act yet. But we had to go to know how others should act. We had to plan to go to the area to test the systems, measures, and policies that the infectious disease control work designed to find methods that could actually be used, and then use the results to teach others so that they could go to work as safely as possible.
“Infectious disease control service recipients are not just patients.”
Most medical personnel have patients and people who come for treatment as service recipients. However, with the work of infectious disease control, they must set disease control policies that must cover not only patients, but also medical personnel and the environment. During the COVID-19 crisis, they must allocate medical equipment, equipment to prevent the spread of the disease, or even set policies to manage a safe environment for patients and medical personnel to carry out COVID-19 treatment.
“Because the number of people is not a lot, there must be a small number with quality.”
The infectious disease control team is not large, so we need to plan and divide them well, to send people to the area and divide people to monitor the situation. The people who go to the area must use the information they get to train everyone in the team, to see who is doing well and who is not, what they are doing wrong, or what they do not understand, in order to teach and educate everyone so that they understand each other, because this work cannot be missed.
“Qualifications of infectious disease control workers that are not covered in textbooks”
Lt. Col. Patcharee revealed that what all personnel should have, in addition to the knowledge from textbooks that everyone has already studied, is modernity. It may sound a bit strange, but people who work in infectious disease control must be modern, follow national news, be agile and quick in order to receive news as quickly as possible. This is work that requires knowledge before others when something happens, such as the COVID-19 outbreak crisis.
“Infectious disease control is another job that sacrifices personal time.”
From what I’ve seen from medical personnel from other departments, it’s clear that everyone has barely been able to go home or meet their families during the COVID-19 crisis. The same goes for infectious disease control work. They have had to sacrifice their personal time, their relationships with their families, and devote almost all of their time to work.
“The severe COVID-19 outbreak situation in Samut Sakhon Province”
Ms. Patcharee said that at the time of the severe outbreak, information about the outbreak in Samut Sakhon was very severe and hard to imagine. In addition, the infectious disease control unit had to send a team to help in Samut Sakhon Province, with only 1 day to prepare the team, plans, measures, and set up a work system. The infectious disease control unit itself could not go as a whole team because the situation elsewhere was not so good. The team that was sent had to collect saliva samples, separate infected people and risk groups, and collect everyone’s information to bring back for diagnosis.
“A role that needs to be ready to change”
As time passed until the COVID-19 crisis in Thailand reached the 3rd and 4th waves, the work of infectious disease control had to adjust its role according to the situation because at present, our country Thailand has enough good information and guidelines. We just have to make people follow the guidelines that have been set. In addition, the new role of infectious disease control is to investigate infections. From the spread of the Delta strain of COVID-19, which is much more severe than the others, it is necessary to stop the infection as soon as possible in order to prevent the spread of this strain in Thailand.
“Asked if I was scared, I was scared at first. But what I could do was shake off the fear. It’s the job we have to do. Since our job is to control infectious diseases, we have to do it.”
Many personnel working in infectious disease control must also be afraid because they are ordinary people like us who sacrifice themselves, putting themselves at risk as the first line of defense, being the first to see and touch in order to come up with the correct measures to follow. It is a sacrifice that they are willing to make in order to put everyone at the least risk, even though they themselves are at the greatest risk.
“At first, I was very tired because everyone kept asking me what it was and how to act. Later, after being tired, I became proud that I was a part of this work.”
One of the team members of the communicable disease control unit said that during the initial outbreak, people around her, both known and unknown, contacted her to ask for information about it. Because she works in this field, she had to search for information very hard to answer everyone’s questions. At first, it was a very tiring and difficult time. But after it passed, when everything started to get back on track, she felt very proud that she was part of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Conclusion
In a situation where the COVID-19 outbreak has not ended, there are still many people who have to sacrifice their personal time, their own lives, to improve the situation, just because they hope that everyone in Thailand will have their old life back again. Infectious disease control work is the first frontline work that requires putting ourselves at risk first, in exchange for collecting data and processing it into results to distribute to everyone. We can all be a part of helping to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19. Wear a mask before going out. Don’t put yourself at risk in crowded places. Wash your hands frequently with alcohol. Get fully vaccinated to increase immunity. Then we will overcome the COVID-19 crisis together.
Infectious Disease Control, the First Line of the Front Line | Thammasat University Hospitalลิมพระเกียรติ
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