31/03/2020
MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE FROM THE LOCKDOWN THAN FROM THE VIRUS!
Dr Torngee Malu, MBBS, FWACS, FMCS, FDAFPRS( Stuttgart, Germany)
As a medical Doctor and consultant plastic surgeon, I am not directly affected by the lockdown, I am free to move around and I have enough stock to last me and my family but this write up is for those who don't have the privileges I have.
*Only one person (1) has died from the virus since its discovery in Nigeria and most of those diagnosed are said to be in 'stable condition'.
* Millions of Nigerians depend on what they make on a daily basis from the little trade they carry out to feed themselves and their families , these people are living on the edge all the time and a day or two off work means starvation, sickness and death.
* Millions of pregnant women who are currently expecting have no means of transporting themselves to the hospital for medical care in an emergency and there are no contingency plans to address this when it happens and its already happening. Pregnant women will have to deliver at home and lose their babies or even their lives.
* Malaria and other common illnesses that on a regular day kill more people in a day than Covid 19 has killed in 4 months are not on lockdown, but now the poor cannot access the hospital on time with that child that is convulsing from a high temperature due to malaria, that poor woman who is the bread winner is on a lockdown so she does not have the money to get the meds even though the hospitals and pharmacies are open. She cannot borrow from her fellow traders because they are also on lockdown and the daily contribution has ceased.
* Terdoo is an Ashmatic teenager , she has attacks every other week and the closest hospital is 20 min away when they go by public transport, the Lockdown is on, she had another attack last night and could not make it to the hospital...
* The Lockdown is less than 24 hrs and has already claimed its first Victim, I dont know how many more it would claim while we are on Lockdown in fear of an invisible enemy, which so far has been but a gentle one in Nigeria.
I support every measure to stop the spread of the virus, but I am not sure we are currently prepared for a Lockdown as a nation.
I suggest we go for less stringent measures otherwise we will break one of the medical laws that was recently borrowed by President Donald Trump which is: "Do not make the cure ( or even prevention) of the disease more painful than the disease itself"
