NOW that traffic is getting tighter, it’d be correct to guess that after just a few months shy of three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, people—commuters, whether workers, students and what have you—are back on the road, traversing the main thoroughfares to get to their destinations.
This is especially true for employees, majority of whom are now working onsite. Companies have thought of various ways to keep their business going and now that Covid-19 is somewhat diminishing but its presence is still being felt, the focus now is how to keep their workforce safe.
Dr. Joselito Gapas, Head of Occupational Health of First Philippine Holdings, said during the latest “Stop Covid Deaths” episode titled “May Liwanag ba ang Bukas para sa mga Health Workers” organized by the University of the Philippines, UP Manila NIH National Telehealth Center and UP Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), said that despite the many challenges and trials that Covid-19 brought to the country for almost three years, it is like that the country will be headed for a good Christmas and hopefully a better 2023.
“With more vaccination and no serious Covid variant in the horizon at present we can say that the risks to the health of workers including health care workers are lower than ever,” Dr. Gapas said.
Risk, probability, consequence
HE said that at present, the probability and consequence that would equate to risk to workers, including health-care workers, are now lower than ever. The probability or chance of getting infected is lower because of established minimum public health standards such as masking, distancing, personal hygiene, vaccination, testing (antigen and RT-PCR), isolation, plus ventilation in workspaces, education and awareness, and hybrid work arrangements. These are just some of the control measures implemented to lower the probability of getting infected or spreading the infection.
In terms of consequence, Dr. Gapas said vaccination is still the key because it provides long-term protection against severe Covid-19 outcomes. There are also early diagnosis and treatment modalities focusing on high-risk groups to reduce the consequence of infection to them. Medical facilities are now better prepared, and Omicron subvariants at present have lower disease severity, and we know more about Covid than before.
“But keep in mind that we should not be complacent. Hopefully soon, we can transition to an endemic state. We hope to stay that way longer. But again, the population can gradually reduce immunity, and if we fail to vaccinate regularly, Covid may re-emerge with a new variant or sub-variant, and we go through the same cycle. That is why we should always be on guard because epidemics are a never-ending cycle,” he explained.
What does the future hold?
IN terms of the future, Dr. Gapas said there is still the threat of infectious disease outbreak getting bigger, the interval for potential outbreaks is getting shorter, and there are emerging diseases that are called the “novel” virus (SARS-COV1, SARS-COV2, H1N1), and then the re-emerging endemic diseases such as dengue, zika, ebola, monkeypox, West Nile fever, polio, and others. He said these are endemic diseases that we are all living with but have the potential to re-emerge and become an outbreak.
Dr. Gapas pointed out that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the risk of epidemics is increasing because of several factors such as increasing global population, increasing mobility of people, animals and plants, increasing urban density, increased pressure on natural systems (deforestation, human encroachment on the natural world) and changing ecosystems of species, and the impact of climate change.
So what are we looking forward to now as we look into the future? He said that there should be strategies on both global, regional, national, and even local levels against future outbreaks. Fortunately, Dr. Gapas said global health agencies such as the WHO have what is called the “One Health” approach versus future outbreaks.
This approach, he said, protects human and animal health and their shared environment via a global and transdisciplinary strategy, and links issues like vaccination between humans and animals. Through human and animal monitoring, he said a potential epidemic or emerging/reemerging infectious disease can be promptly identified. And now, the prevention and management of health risks is dependent on protecting and preserving the environment.
Through this approach, the focus, Dr. Gapas said, is integrated in protecting human, animal and environmental health. One Health is founded on three important pillars such as Communication, Coordination, and Collaboration, which we all learned during the Covid-19 outbreak. “There should also be community responsibility, that it is not only us and our families that are safe from an outbreak but also the other people we interact with on a daily basis. We have to see it on that perspective.”
Silver lining for health-care workers
DR. Gapas cited a quote by Sir Winston Churchill, the UK’s Prime Minister during World War II, who said “Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.” He again reminded everyone that Covid-19 is still ongoing, the crisis remains and no one knows when will it be over so there’s a need to find a silver lining to this, of if there is enough motivation and capacity to find a silver lining, then it should be done.
Right now, he said that health-care workers are every country’s most valued resource so there’s a need for better and sustainable health organizations and systems, while health professionals had and will continue to assume leadership positions at all levels. “As health professionals, we will be called upon to play multiple roles other than our clinical roles so we need to address these roles. We need to become efficient communicators and as educators we need to obtain skills so that we shall be effective in engaging our stakeholders. We had many learnings that can be seen as opportunities that we can take advantage of, but we also need to retool and re-train.”
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Image credits: Nonoy Lacza