ILOILO City – Who’s seeing the unseen enemy? It’s the “unseen” frontliners.
They may be rarely in public view like most of our healthcare providers, but they may hold life and death in their hands.
Being a medical technologist, especially in a pandemic, means nothing but proximity to the menace.
Imagine dealing with the enemy everyday – the dreaded SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – through chemical reactions, specialized equipment and computers and precision devices.
Despite the risk and threat to their own health, too, giving up on the job is never an option, according to Chiqui Blancaflor, laboratory supervisor of the city government-run Uswag Molecular Laboratory in San Pedro, Molo district.
They are vital members of the frontlines; the amount of pressure they have to deal every day to provide accurate and precise data is unfathomable. Doctors make most of their decisions based on the medical technologists’ end-work at the laboratories.
The Uswag Lab houses 15 laboratory professionals and 18 swabbers.
There are also two health workers augmented by the Department of Health through its Human Resource for Health program, and another four med techs and nine staff under the Data Management Team.
Blancaflor said she never heard anyone from the staff, especially their med techs, complaining about their daily grind.
“Would you believe wala? Wala gid and then damu med tech ga-apply kay gusto nila amo ‘ni nga obra,” Blancaflor told Panay News.
Blancaflor noted that this is the same team of med techs who also stood by the frontlines during the dengue outbreak in 2019.
None of them resigned because of fear for their health, except for one who looked for a greener pasture.
“This is what we (med techs) live for,” Blancaflor stressed. “They are all there because you cannot ask other people to do this kind of work.”
Blancaflor added that this only shows their love for the profession they chose.
“You cannot imagine kon ano ‘ni sila ka isog,” she emphasized.
Blancaflor offered a case: “Ang isa ka swabber, paminsaron mo lang kon 70 ka tawo ang nag-positive sa laboratory buot silingon ang isa ka swabber kag ang bilog nga lab nagtandog sang 70 ka positive nga specimen – kabalo ka kon ano ka isog sang tawo?”
“Amo ‘na ka isog ang mga med techs sang Uswag Lab. Paghambal sulong, masulong na sila,” Blancaflor said.
While the courage for these Uswag med techs is already innate in them, Blancaflor said they always make sure that they took necessary precautions.
“Una sa tanan may bio safety training kami, nagpa-train on proper donning and doffing sang PPE (personal protective equipment) and then pirmi namon na-check amon equipment,” said Blancaflor.
She also thanked God that since the start of the operation of the Uswab Lab, with the thousands of specimens collected via swab, only a few were detected to be having the genetic material from SARS-CoV-2 (or infected patients).
As of Aug. 16, Uswag Lab has a total of 102,890 swab samples collected, and 62,262 specimens tested since the start of operations on Nov. 25, 2020.
Five of their med techs were not spared by COVID-19. But these individuals had acquired the virus from the community, not from their workplace, said Blancaflor. After they recovered, they went back to work.
Most of these med techs are going home after work.
Blancaflor said those who are stationed in the so-called “dirty” area are required to take a shower right at the lab after taking off their PPEs.
This “dirty” area is where the virus is still alive while the “clean” area is where the specimens are already processed.
Upon arriving home, they also make sure to take a shower and disinfect their clothes and things.
For her part, Blancaflor said she’s lucky enough because her mother is a med tech, too, thus, she understands the risk.
“Nakaintndi sia sang risgo sang trabaho ko and supportive gid sia. Akon lang napasalamatan nga indi ko na kinanglan magpa intindi. Sia mismo gahambal paligo ka, imo lagu disinfect ta,” shared Blancaflor.
These medical technologists, swabbers and laboratory staff may be unsung, but they’re heroes in their own ways./PN
