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Health workers here trained to conduct nasal swab testing – DoH
Health workers here trained to conduct nasal swab testing – DoH
The Department of Health (DoH) assured that healthcare workers in the country are trained to conduct nasal swab testing after a patient in the United States reportedly experienced a brain fluid leakage after undergoing the medical procedure.
“Sana po huwag pong mabahala ang ating mga kababayan. Of course, the government is ensuring na safe po ang paggawa ng specimen collection dito sa ating bansa (The public should not worry. Of course, the government is ensuring that the conduct of specimen collection in the country is safe),” said DoH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire in a public press briefing Saturday.
Vergeire said that those collecting patients’ specimens are “skilled healthcare workers.”
“Ang pinaka-importante, kailangan ang gumagawa ‘yung trained or skilled healthcare worker. Kaya nga po ating tine-train ang mga mga tao na gumawa niyan para maiiwasan po ‘yung mga ganitong mga pangyayari (The most important thing is to have a trained or skilled healthcare worker. That is why we are training people to do that to avoid such incidents),” she said.
The Agence France-Presse reported the brain lining of an American woman in her 40s was punctured after undergoing a swab test, “causing fluid to leak from her nose and putting her at risk of life-threatening infection.”
The DoH monitors if the healthcare facilities are using the right equipment and if they are following the protocols for nasal swab testing, said Vergeire.
“Katulad po ng sinasabi ko, sinisiguro natin na ‘yung specimen collection po ay tama ang paggawa, tama ang proseso, tama ang mga gamit. Meron po tayong tinatawag na lisensya para dito sa mga facilities na ito and even those that are doing remote collection – binabantayan ho natin iyan (As I’ve said, we make sure that the specimen collection is done correctly – the process and equipment are correct. We have a so-called license for these facilities and even those that are doing remote collection – we are monitoring that),” said Vergeire.
“Makikita naman po natin dito sa ating bansa, nagagawa naman ng ating mga healthcare workers because they follow protocol and atin pong sinisigurado na skilled po ‘yung healthcare workers na gagawa nito (As you can see here in our country, our healthcare workers can do it because they follow the protocol and we make sure that they are skilled to do it),” she added.