In ‘To live for two days-Murcia Region’ we have talked with Dr. José Martínez about the current situation related to the coronavirus, from the application of immunity tests in our autonomous community to the removal of the defective masks that were supplied to health personnel.
In addition, he emphasized the need for this crisis to make us reflect on the relationship of the health system with nursing homes, where the fatality of this disease has been very high throughout the country.
“There are residences that are like medium care hospitals, and they live on the fringes of the health system. The health system has ignored them,” said the doctor. “They should be more integrated into the health network,” he adds, proposing that there be permanent communication and that staff from the health system be hired in the residences.
In the Region of Murcia, according to data provided by the Regional Government, there are 287 people in residences infected by coronavirus and 87 infections among staff, including in this statistic the centers for minors. The deceased are 49. If there is a great lethality due to coronavirus in these centers, Martínez believes that “we would have to make special efforts in the residences and it seems reasonable to me that all the patients and workers who are in a residence have their test done”.
Thus, following the recommendations of the World Health Organization, WHO says that “this is the time to do tests in residences and from there to make real risk maps.”
Regarding the use of immunity tests that have begun to be carried out this week in hospital centers and three health centers in the Region, the Ministry announced that they had given a high number of “false positives”. “The tests of the Autonomous Community did not measure well one of the two established parameters and the results did not coincide with the logic of the natural process of the infection,” says Martínez, adding that, in any case, “it produces a lot of confusion, but it is worth the assessment of the chronic phase. “
This next week, new tests provided by the Ministry of Health should arrive. Martínez has differentiated that the tests of the Ministry of Health “wanted to be a little more precise when evaluating the immune state and would help us to identify if the affected person had passed the coronavirus or was in the acute phase”, while ” those of the Ministry seek to confirm that the person has passed the disease. “
He has also explained to us the problem with the FFP2 masks that the Ministry of Health sent to several autonomous communities, including Murcia, and that they were removed within a few days when it was shown that they were defective and did not help protect health personnel. In fact, about 60 health workers from the Santa Lucía Hospital in Cartagena are isolated after using these masks and waiting for diagnostic tests to be done.
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