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Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
A SUDDEN distress call and all other aspects of life fade into the background as with a squeal of tyres, a medical team is dispatched to attend to a suspected Covid-19 case.

While others flee in terror, medical personnel oppose the flow and go straight to the suspected patient.

The term “frontline” often conjures images of soldiers clad in intimidating military gear in the heat of battle in a combat zone.

Medical frontline soldiers ensure the world keeps running for those locked down at home.

Armed with protective clothing and medical knowledge, health workers are the essential parts of the machine that keeps the world in motion as they are required to go beyond the call of duty at great risk to themselves. Although they work with other essential service providers, nurses, doctors and ambulance crews, by the nature of their jobs, are arguably the professionals on the frontline tackling the deadly Covid-19 global pandemic.

These rarely thanked workers, often clad in white, are found in hospital wards, the most dreaded places in the wake of the contagious virus.

Abandoning the safety and comfort of their homes to uphold a pledge to serve humanity during the most terrifying times, they work a draining average 14 hours a day, seven days a week. They offer their all on the firing line and get exposed to hazards that put them at risk of infection.

Hazards include pathogen exposure, long working hours, psychological distress, fatigue, occupational burnout, stigma, and emotional distress.

The Chronicle caught up with some Bulawayo City Council (BCC) Rapid Response Team (RRT) members operating from the Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital and they shared their triumphs and fears as the deadly pandemic continues to lay waste to countries globally.However, due to the sensitivity of their work, their identity is withheld.

A male RRT member said during this crisis he equates his profession to that of a fireman, the only one who runs into a burning building when everybody else is running out.

“It’s not an easy task, but somebody has to do it. But, after handling the patients, you feel a strong urge to bath multiple times. You may feel you may have not taken enough precautions, but usually it’s just paranoia,” he says.

One of the team members said she gets reassurance from her “Nightingale Oath” (Nurses’ pledge), which she said reminds her of the need to save humanity, and the fulfilment she feels when she watches the recovery journey of a patient.

“It’s not easy. It’s one of those things that you did not really think much about when you signed up for the job. I was scared a bit when there was cholera in the country, fearing that it may come to Bulawayo. We had the drills and the false alarms but we never had a confirmed case.

“There were fears of Ebola as well, but we were spared again. So, with Covid-19, reality just strikes so hard, but it’s our job. We took the Nightingale Oath. It should be done. I am just proud to be serving my country. I have never realised how important my job is until everyone else has had to stay at home, lock themselves up and put all bolts on their doors, yet I am expected to leave home, buckle up and face the enemy. In a sense, I am a soldier or a warrior, and not those that give instructions from the base station, but the foot soldier who is on the frontline and does the actual fighting,” she said.

Asked what she thought about what is happening around the world, with some health care workers losing their lives, she said she was ready for anything.

“My profession is a calling. Daily we risk being infected by TB, we treated HIV positive patients. I was there when AIDS was still very scary and no-one wanted to handle a patient. But I am still here now. There are moments of fear, but the years I have spent in this profession have made me fearless. Nothing is as fulfilling as seeing a patient who has been at the point of death at some point rise up, get stronger every day and eventually leave the hospital strong and healthy. It is an indicator that I’m doing something good and that one family has been spared from the tears and grief of losing a loved one,” she said.

The teams have so far responded to more than 170 calls. Some are via telephone at the call centre, some are via WhatsApp and some are by word of mouth.

“I just fear that at some point, I might get infected. I don’t fear for myself, but I fear for my loved ones. I may come back home after work, feeling fine and all but not knowing that I’ve been infected and unknowingly infect others at home and elsewhere. That’s my greatest fear, infecting those I love and my patients. But we try to do the best we can to ensure that it doesn’t happen,” said a member of the team.

“For our sake, please stay at home as we are out here for you. Make our job easier by staying indoors and practising social distancing whenever you really have to be out. We cannot afford to fill up our hospitals and the most painful part of our jobs is when we fail to save a life. Stay at home and stay safe,” she said.

The RRT is multidisciplinary. Ideally, it should have an epidemiologist, a clinician, an environmental health practitioner, a laboratory scientist and also a health promotion officer. According to BCC, this has not always been practical.

The city has five teams, each consisting of a clinician and an environmental health practitioner. They are supported technically and operationally by the other disciplines including epidemiologists, doctors, administrators, pharmacists, laboratory scientists and health promotion officers.

BCC senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu said: “The teams often work 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is hoped that once central hospitals operationalise their own RRTs, the burden on the city council RRTs will only be on the community and private sector, while central hospitals manage the suspected cases in their own facilities.

“We are doing all that we can under the circumstances. There is a lot of work to be done. I commend the teams that we have as they are putting their all in the fight. Many are actually working longer hours now and are dedicated to this job and that’s not easy. This fight will only be won if the residents also do their part by staying at home and abiding by the given rules and regulations.”

The head of the Thorngrove Infectious Diseases Hospital Sister Nomazulu Dlodlo in an interview with the news crew said her team at the hospital was prepared and said despite numerous challenges and the lack of some of the key essential equipment the staff was cheerful and raring to serve patients. – @andile_tshuma.