US facing shortage of medicines-ventilators and protective gears
Doctors-nurses and other health staff facing greater risk
The richest
country in the world and most dominant economic-military and political power in
the world but it is facing the shortage of medicines-medical equipment-supplies
and protective gears for health workers and doctors. The doctors-nurses and hospital
staff is finding it difficult to cope with the rising number of patients.
The US has
become the leading nation for having the most infected patients surpassing
China and Italy. The number of coronavirus infected patients have already
crossed 1, 00,000 (one hundred thousand) figure while 1600 dead. The public
health experts are warning that the numbers might climb more quickly in next
couple of weeks.
How strange
it is that a country which export warplanes-tanks-missiles and other weapons of
mass destruction and has the capacity to destroy any country with rain of missiles
and bombs. But it hasn’t had enough masks-protective gears and other equipment
to save its doctors- nurses and other health staff.
A country which is ever ready to launch attack against any country and initiate a war. But it is not ready to cope with a pandemic. Despite its colossal wealth and resources - it is not been able to provide the basic material to its hospital staff to protect themselves. It is really a moment of shame for the American ruling elite.
A country which is ever ready to launch attack against any country and initiate a war. But it is not ready to cope with a pandemic. Despite its colossal wealth and resources - it is not been able to provide the basic material to its hospital staff to protect themselves. It is really a moment of shame for the American ruling elite.
The doctors-nurses
and health staff which are the fighting the coronavirus pandemic at front lines
has pleaded the government to supply ventilators-medicines and protective
gears. The doctors and hospital staff are facing shortage of protective gears
and masks. They are demanding more medical supplies.
The
hospitals in different parts of America are in desperate need of ventilators.
The ventilators are needed for the serious patients of COVID-19 who cannot
breathe normally. The highly contagious novel coronavirus caused respiratory
ailment and patients at certain stage cannot survive without ventilators.
The hospitals
in New York City, New Orleans, Detroit and other cities which have become COVID-19
hot spots are experiencing the scarcities of drugs, medical supplies and
trained staff while the number of confirmed US cases rose by about 18,000 on
Friday, the highest jump in a single day, to more than 103,000.
The American
news agency Reuters has quoted Dr. Arabia Mollette of Brookdale University
Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn saying that “we are scared- we’re
trying to fight for everyone else’s life, but we also fight for our lives as
well, because we’re also at the highest risk of exposure.”
Reuters also
quoted Dr. Alexander Salerno of Salerno Medical Associates, a general medical
practice with offices in northern New Jersey, who described going through a
“broker” to pay $17,000 for masks and other protective equipment that should
have cost about $2,500, and picking them up at an abandoned warehouse.
The prices
of Masks and other protective gears and equipment have gone up to 600% to 700%.
The black market is taking advantage of the increased demand and spiked the
prices many times. New York-area doctors say they have had to recycle some
protective gear, or resort to the black market. Nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital
in New York said they were locking away or hiding N-95 respirator masks,
surgical masks and other supplies that are prone to pilfering if left
unattended. “Masks disappear- We hide it all in drawers in front of the nurses’
station, “said Nurse Diana Torres.
One doctor
in Michigan, an emerging epicentre of the pandemic, said he was using one paper
face mask for an entire shift due to a shortage and that hospitals in the
Detroit area would soon run out of ventilators. Even as hospital patient
numbers steadily climbed, shortages of key medical supplies abounded.
Dr. Rob has
said that “We have hospital systems here in the Detroit area in Michigan who
are getting to the end of their supply of ventilators and have to start telling
families that they can’t save their loved ones because they don’t have enough
equipment.”
Sophia
Thomas, a nurse practitioner at DePaul Community Health Center in New Orleans, said
the numbers of coronavirus patients “have been staggering.” “We are truly a
hotbed of COVID-19 here in New Orleans,” she said, adding that her hospital was
trying to cope in part by shifting some patients to “telehealth” services that
allow them to be evaluated from home.
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