Abstract

VANDYCK-SEY, Priscilla; AMOH, Gordon; ESSUMAN, Akye  and  LAWSON, Henry. Incidental finding of COVID-19 infection amongst staff at a primary care facility in Ghana. Afr. j. prim. health care fam. med. (Online) [online]. 2020, vol.12, n.1, pp.1-4. ISSN 2071-2936.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v12i1.2669.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every country worldwide and all African countries. The issue of healthcare workers (HCWs) contracting the disease is a growing concern in Ghana, because of the risk of spreading infections amongst themselves and to vulnerable patients in their care. This article illustrates how 14 staff at the Korle Bu Polyclinic/Family Medicine Department were incidentally found to be Covid-19 positive with most of them being asymptomatic. This observation led to a modification of the personal protective equipment (PPE) used by clinical staff when attending to patients. Furthermore, this finding suggests that a different criteria or guideline may be needed for testing of HCWs during a pandemic where a significant proportion of infected people are asymptomatic. We conclude that in the primary care setting HCWs must be ready to see all the following cases safely: routine patients, asymptomatic COVID-19 patients and suspected COVID-19 patients.

Keywords : COVID-19 infection; healthcare worker; staff; Ghana; incidental finding; modified PPE.

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