Nurdin Almerekov is head of the intensive care unit at the Republican Infectious Diseases Hospital in Bishkek. He tells us how the fight against COVID-19 is going and how to avoid massive infection.  

How are doctors of the Republican Infectious Diseases Hospital currently working?

We already have patients with COVID-19 in our hospital. And for more than a week we’ve been working around the clock in the hospital. We have a special ward where we, medical workers, live. We regularly check on the patients who have COVID-19. None of us can go home. We have been in quarantine, just like our patients, for seven days already.

To what extent is COVID-19 dangerous?

COVID-19 is considered to be in some way an airborne infection that is transmitted through the air, but it is also a contact infection that can be transmitted through objects. The first symptoms are similar to the flu, meaning high fever, sometimes cough, but the difference with the flu is that COVID-19 can rapidly lead to breath shortness. And complications lead to pneumonia. For our whole planet it is a new and serious infection. Currently there is no treatment, no vaccination and no immunity to COVID-19. That is why it is a serious concern and threat.

How can people protect themselves from COVID-19 infection?

Currently, the first thing to do is to self-isolate. This means to limit contacts with other people and to stay home. Even if you stay home there is no guarantee that you will not get sick, because at any moment, when you go to the store, when you take out trash, when you go to the pharmacy, you can get infected. That’s why it’s crucial to follow sanitary prevention measures, to wear a mask and gloves when you go outside, to wash your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds and especially when you come back from the streets. 

What would you like to tell people based on your own experience with COVID-19?

Our experience with COVID-19 is relatively new and we don’t have any cured patients in our hospital yet. We are just treating them at the moment. Some of our patients don’t even have clinical symptoms of the disease, but they are considered as infectious which is why we are keeping them here under medical care. I would like to ask Kyrgyzstanis to stay home, self-isolate, limit contacts and not go outside during the state of emergency in Bishkek, Jalal-Abad, Osh and other regions where there are new cases of infection. We just need to wait, and we need to break the chain of transmission. People who are diagnosed with COVID-19 need to be immediately isolated and treated. I want to ask everyone to follow prevention methods, to respect the quarantine measures and the emergency state rules. We doctors, nurses, cleaners, medical workers are continuing to work for our fellow citizens, we are here on quarantine ourselves and currently cannot go see our family, our children.  So please stay home for us.