At the forefront of COVID-19 battle, doctors and nurses are also falling sick

It’s day 65 of the COVID-19 epidemic in India, and several doctors and nurses at the forefront of this battle are falling sick.

Here is a look at a few of the cases reported in the media and highlighted by doctors on social media to draw attention to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for nurses and doctors.

1. One of the first cases of a doctor contracting the disease was of the 63-year-old doctor from Kalburagi in Karnataka who treated the 75-year-old man who was the first person to die of COVID-19 in India.

2. At the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, a senior doctor from the Physiology Department first tested positive on April 2, a day later his 9 month pregnant wife also tested positive.

3. Reshma Mohandas, a staff nurse at Kottayam Medical College, had gotten infected while treating India’s oldest patients– the couple from Kerala’s Ranni in Pathanamthitta- 88-year-old Mariyamma and 93-year-old Thomas, who were both diagnosed with COVID-19. She has since then recovered and was discharged on April 3.

4. One nurse from Chandigarh in Punjab tested positive on March 31. A 31-year-old nursing officer in PGI Hospital was posted in the same emergency ward where a coronavirus patient had died.  A 40-year-old doctor contracted the disease after coming into contact with an NRI couple from Canada who had tested positive. 

5. At Panchkula,Haryana a 35-year-old nurse at the General Hospital sector 6, also tested positive.

6. Three doctors in Delhi, two from Safdarjung Hospital and one from Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Hospital had tested positive on April 1. One of the Safdarjung doctors had a travel history to Dubai, while the other doctor had come in contact with a patient.

7. A doctor from a Mohalla clinic in Babarpur, Delhi contracted the disease from a patient who had returned from Saudi Arabia. His wife, also a doctor in the same locality, contracted the disease from him.

8. A doctor at the Delhi State Cancer Institute (DSCI) tested positive, the doctor had come in contact with relatives who had returned from the UK. Later two nurses at the cancer institute who came in contact with the doctor also tested positive. 

9. At Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital, two nurses working in the Outpatient Department tested positive, the hospital was briefly shut after the nurses tested positive. 

10.  A 38-year- old doctor working in the ICU of Maharaja Agrasen hospital, in Bengaluru, Karnataka also tested positive, the doctor had come in contact with a patient

11. At Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital, Delhi a 25-year-old nurse tested positive.

13 healthcare workers from Delhi are positive.

1 - AIIMS
2 - Safdarjung
1 - Maharaja Agrasen
1 -Delhi cancer institute
1 -Sardar Patel Hospital
2 Nursing officer Delhi cancer institute
1 Nursing orderly DDU
1 male nurse Apollo
2 doctors mohalla clinic & 1 pvt#Updating #PPE

— Srinivas Rajkumar M.D(AIIMS) (@srinivas_aiims) April 3, 2020