Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, Director General (DG) of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said, looking at emerging new evidence, new methods for case management of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country are being considered.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr. Ihekweazu, who made this known on Thursday during the daily press briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTFCOVID19), said the task force, and everyone involved in the response are thinking of alternatives of managing the pandemic in the country.
“We are thinking about community management, we are thinking about home isolation. We have not come out with any definite policy on this but we are thinking about these things because we have to.
“New evidence is emerging that even when the test is still positive, that in certain circumstances after that patients have been in care for a certain amount of time, it is possible and safe to discharge that patient to home isolation.
“So, we are looking at the evidence and we might change our guidelines over time. We are sharing this so that we start preparing ourselves for some changes in direction on how we are planning to go,” Dr. Ihekweazu stated.
In his remarks during the briefing, the NCDC DG stated that under normal circumstances, there was no reason for asymptomatic COVID-19 patients be in hospitals and be isolated, but that the only reason they are being isolated was to prevent them from transmitting to others.
“It is always important to remind people on the full spectrum of the clinical presentation that we see with this new virus. We see a new disease that in 80% of cases, people are mildly or completely asymptomatic, that is, they don’t have any symptoms at all.
“Under normal circumstances, there wont be any reason for these people to be in hospitals and to be isolated. The only reason we are isolating is to prevent them from transmitting to others. In many contexts in the world, when this outbreak first broke out in China, they carried out very similar policies. They treated all the severe cases in hospitals and isolated every single person that was infected in isolation centres.
“In other countries in the world, and this is public knowledge, they made a decision to treat all asymptomatic and mildly asymptomatic people at home. That is a decision they have made in that context.
“We have struggled with these decisions in Nigeria because we are struggling with realities of where we live and the context that we live in. we want to prevent transmission, therefore, we want to institutionalize the treatment of everyone. We have held back on advocating for home isolation because we recognize that the circumstances in which many Nigerians live make home isolation very difficult and sometimes an impossible option for many people who live in very tight accommodation in family groups and communities. So, there are no easy options.
“Every day we identify new patients. Yesterday we confirmed a 199 newly infected people in Lagos State alone. It means that if we are to continue on our policy of institutional isolation and treatment for everyone, Lagos, this morning, has to find a 199 new rooms to accommodate these newly diagnosed people. This is not possible in our reality. It is a simple fact. You can look at the numbers. As the numbers increase, we will struggle with this.
“So, the presidential task force and everyone involved in this response, is having to think about alternatives. We are thinking about community management, we are thinking about home isolation. We have not come out with any definite policy on this but we are thinking about these things because we have to. Its not a choice, its not an ideal scenario but these are realities of managing cases in our context and we are looking at all the choices available to us, and we will have to make those decisions.
“We will make the best decisions available to us in the best interest of everyone together with State Governments, together with Local Governments, together with the private sector to provide the best possible care for our people.
“Having said that, this is a new virus, and we are learning. Every day we are learning about transmissibility of the virus. Up till now, we have kept patients in care or advised that patients be kept in care until they turn out to be negative on the test we are using, the PCR test.
“New evidence is emerging that even when the test is still positive, that in certain circumstances after that patients have been in care for a certain amount of time, it is possible and safe to discharge that patient to home isolation. So, we are looking at the evidence and we might change our guidelines over time. We are sharing this so that we start preparing ourselves for some changes in direction on how we are planning to go,” Ihekweazu stated.