An infectious diseases expert, Dr Folarin Opawoye, has warned Nigerians against improper use of personal protective equipment, saying the wrong usage could be dangerous.
Opawoye said this at a sensitisation workshop on COVID-19, organised by the Medical Guild, Lagos chapter, in partnership with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organisation, for health workers in Lagos.
“When we say improper use of PPEs, we are talking about people using face masks and gloves that they do not need at all or are not using properly. Who are the people that are supposed to use face masks? Only those that are sick or the health care workers seeing a sick person. But you go on the road you see everybody using face masks and gloves, it does not work that way.”
“One face mask that you use is one less face mask available for someone that needs it. You see people wearing gloves, the same glove they use in touching their phones and to touch other things, that is the wrong way of using it. What we recommend is regular hand washing and the use of hand sanitiser,” Opawoye said.
He added that the disease could be transmitted when an infected person coughs around uninfected people or handles a surface that might later be handled by an uninfected person.
“The most important thing is not PPEs, but social distancing. People should stay at home and if they have to go out then they must wash their hands. It can be transmitted by air droplet or aerosol, the face mask does not protect you from the aerosol transmission,” Opawoye added.
@ Punch Newspaper
