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Triage is the process of determining the priority of a patient’s treatment based on the severity of their condition or the likelihood of their recovery with or without treatment.

After the prime minister’s intervention, doctors were provided with proper PPE, and the number of new infections reduced.

No hospital in the country has an infection prevention and control programme, he said, adding that there should have been one or more experts to teach health workers how to use PPE.

In a letter to the health minister last month, the BMA said the health ministry and the Directorate General of Health Services were responsible for the infections among doctors.

The ministry made arrangements for treating journalists, police, lawyers and people of several other professions, but it did not take similar steps to ensure treatment for the frontline fighters, the letter said.

BMA called for dedicating Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital or another facility for the infected doctors.

Nirupam Das, chief administrator at BDF, said hospital infections were happening simply because of a lack of preventive measures.

WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?

Of the 62 doctors who died, at least 42 were aged above 60. Most of them were professors or had long experiences. They could have played a major role in a crisis like this, said Ehteshamul.

Besides giving treatment, they could guide the young doctors to become skilled physicians. They could also play important policy making roles in the health sector, he added.

Many of the senior doctors had comorbidities and it was difficult to save them from Covid-19, he said.

Six to seven of them worked at ICUs. “In our country, no hospital has a negative pressure room. As a result, doctors get infected while working at the ICUs.”

Negative pressure is an isolation technique used in hospitals to prevent cross-contamination from room to room.

Doctors who are involved in intubation and nebulisation are more vulnerable to infection, Ehteshamul added.