
Jun 20 , 2020
By Eden Sahle
There is a friend of mine who knows about sleep deprivation like no other. Working double shifts and sleeping on wooden benches, he is one of those strong men and women on the front line of the fight against the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Our healthcare professionals are putting their lives on the line to save the lives of others each day with the lack of even the most basic infrastructure.
For my friend, the COVID-19 pandemic means the disruption of his previous practice, where he cared for a single patient at a time. Now he has to engage with multiple patients at a time in a public health institution.
Making that sort of abrupt change is not easy for him and his colleagues who have had to adapt to ever-changing unpleasant new realities. They were not expecting to contend with a flood of patients. It is not just new COVID-19 patients who are impacted but others that have been affected with the strain put on the healthcare system.
Even under normal circumstances, our medical professionals are expected to deliver more than their training prepares them for. They are not provided with adequate medical gear and equipment, they face high rates of infection, and the stress that comes from dealing with patients in pain is often exhausting and distressing. Apart from a lack of facilities, the grossly inadequate number of medical doctors has added to the burden.
The COVID-19 outbreak is especially taxing. It often involves working in an environment where not enough is known yet about the illness, but health professionals are expected to meet expectations with a similar level of effectiveness. The emotional and psychological impact takes its own toll, as their exposure to the virus negatively impacts their social life.
We all may be living in uncertain times, but it is truer of these professionals. Society owes them a debt of gratitude for the resilience and dedication to their profession. Without them, we will not be able to defeat the pandemic.
As the number of cases has been rising over the past month, with daily rates having reached three digits, the best way we can still keep ourselves safe is by protecting ourselves from the disease.
Although we may not have the medical skill to treat patients, we have hard-wired humanity in all of us to be there for one another and to appreciate those who are helping the country. We should all go beyond our comfort zone and cope with the lifestyle changes the pandemic has brought.
Certainly, the pandemic is a new aspect in our lives that is largely out of our control. Until these professionals can come up with an effective enough treatment, it will be out of our control.
There are already promising clinical trials taking place at the moment. One of the most promising seems to be Dexamethasone, a low-dose steroid treatment that has been seen to cut deaths by a third for patients on ventilators and a fifth for those on respirators.
What this shows us is that the pandemic will come to an end, and we will once again venture outside without fear. What is expected of us is patience to stay put, while our health professionals save the lives of those who have unfortunately contracted the disease.
We also do not know whether after the pandemic life as we knew it might be significantly different. We may reassess our values and institutions. Most likely, we would attempt to look after our environment better and work to strengthen our health system, including providing healthcare professionals with the resources they need. The silver lining might be that we will come out of this fairly committed to caring for our doctors and nurses, in much the same way they took care of us in our time of need.
PUBLISHED ON
Jun 20,2020 [ VOL
21 , NO
1051]
Fortune News | Aug 21,2021
Radar | Mar 19,2022
Commentaries | Apr 25,2020
Fortune News | Feb 19,2022
Fortune News | Jul 09,2022
Radar | Jul 24,2023
Radar | May 04,2024
Fortune News | Sep 10,2022
Radar | Sep 24,2022
Photo Gallery | 155247 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 145520 Views | Apr 26,2019
My Opinion | 135167 Views | Aug 14,2021
Photo Gallery | 134003 Views | Oct 06,2021
Dec 22 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW
Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitiv...
Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...
Jul 28 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW
Unhabitual, perhaps too many, Samuel Gebreyohannes, 38, used to occasionally enjoy a couple of beers at breakfast. However, he recently swit...
Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO
Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transporting commodities, and f...
Sep 13 , 2025
At its launch in Nairobi two years ago, the Africa Climate Summit was billed as the f...
Sep 6 , 2025
The dawn of a new year is more than a simple turning of the calendar. It is a moment...
Aug 30 , 2025
For Germans, Otto von Bismarck is first remembered as the architect of a unified nati...
Aug 23 , 2025
Banks have a new obsession. After decades chasing deposits and, more recently, digita...
Sep 15 , 2025 . By AMANUEL BEKELE
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa's largest hydroelectric power proj...
Sep 13 , 2025
The initial budget in 2011 was 80 billion Br, but this figure swelled to a revised cost of 240 billion Br by 2024, a challenge that was exac...
Sep 13 , 2025 . By BEZAWIT HULUAGER
Banks are facing growing pressure to make sustainability central to their operations as regulators and in...
Sep 15 , 2025 . By YITBAREK GETACHEW
The Addis Abeba City Cabinet has enacted a landmark reform to its long-contentious setback regulations, a...