A sample of one county's epidemic prevention: rural fever peak is over, hospitals in "wartime" condition to meet the Spring Festival homecoming epidemic

Read Time:14 Minute, 40 Second

As the Spring Festival approaches, farmers and college and university students return home one after another, and the movement of people in rural areas increases, the risk of spreading the new crown epidemic also increases. Doing a good job of epidemic prevention and control in rural areas has become the focus of China’s new phase of epidemic prevention and control, which has received the attention of society.

On January 7, the State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a conference on the situation of epidemic prevention and control in rural areas, requiring that the epidemic prevention and control in rural areas and agricultural production stability and supply must be grasped with both hands, both hands. Many places in China have recently set up special teams for epidemic prevention and control in rural areas to do their best to prevent and control epidemics in rural areas.

What is the current status of epidemic prevention and control in rural areas? How is the epidemic prevention work carried out in rural health offices, township health centers and county hospitals? This reporter recently visited several villages, township health centers and county hospitals in Taihu County, Anhui Province, and tried to find the answers to the above questions.

The infusion room of the health center in Sizen Town

Most villagers recover from fever and medicine

Taihu County is located in the southwest of Anhui Province, the county covers an area of 2040 square kilometers, with a population of 580,000. It is an ancient county with a long history of civilization and is an important birthplace of Chinese Zen culture.

About 27 kilometers away from Taihu County, Luoxi Village in Sizian Town has beautiful scenery and pleasant views. This village located in the mountains and many villages, the resident population is mainly left behind the elderly and children, young people are outside to earn a living.

At 2 p.m. on Jan. 3, 73-year-old Granny Ye was looking after her grandson while chatting with villagers at the village’s fitness square, looking in good spirits. Granny Ye is an old man left behind, living in the village with her two grandchildren and her eldest son-in-law.

In late December last year, Granny Ye developed a cough, but no fever. She took a little cold medicine and drank a lot of boiled water every day. Probably because of her good health, her cough symptoms disappeared after a few days. During this time, she also received three tablets of ibuprofen from the village. Granny Ye’s eldest son-in-law and two heavy grandsons had a fever and recovered without incident after taking the medicine at home.

“Some people have fever, some have bone pain, some have sore throats, most of our villagers have some symptoms, and very few have no symptoms at all. But now basically they are all well, only a few still have some coughs and other symptoms.” Granny Ye said that most of the villagers who have symptoms will take some medicine on their own and carry on at home, and only those who really can’t carry on will seek medical attention. They have only one doctor in the village health office, generally do not give the villagers injections or infusions, only prescribe drugs.

The 43-year-old Master Ye is a villager in the town of Terra Front West River, to drive a truck for a living. 13 days ago, his eldest son began to appear fever symptoms, the highest body temperature close to 40 degrees Celsius, he went to the village health room to prescribe some cold medicine. After his eldest son took two pieces of cold medicine, Master Ye used the local native method – hot water soaking feet for his treatment, and after a few days, his eldest son basically recovered. But then, Master Ye, his wife and youngest son also appeared one after another fever symptoms.

“In addition to the fever, there was also pain all over the body, especially the pain in the lower back that made me restless.” Master Ye recalled his symptoms at that time, he took a cold medicine and a few painkillers, and drank a lot of boiled water every day, and basically recovered after four days. The recovery process for his wife and young son also went quite well, with no other after-effects.

Master Ye said that most of the villagers in Xihe Village had already experienced fever and other symptoms, and the villagers were taking some medicine and using some native methods to treat at home, and now they have basically recovered. However, there are a few elderly people still have some sequelae, they have individual elderly people with underlying diseases in nearby villages did not survive the wave of infection.

Not far from Taihu County, Xiaochi Village, Xiaochi Town, 78-year-old villager Wang Da-ji walked home after buying vegetables in town, slightly hunched over, he looked like he was recovering well. More than ten days ago, alone at home, Master Wang appeared symptoms of bone pain, after taking a little cold medicine, after two days on the basic recovery. He introduced that during this period of time, most of the villagers in the village had fever and other symptoms, but now they have all basically recovered, and there are also individual cases of elderly people who died after being infected with the new crown.

Xiaochi Town Health Center

Some elderly people didn’t make it through

At 10:00 a.m. on January 4, more than twenty patients were receiving infusions in the infusion room of Taihu County’s Sizen Town Health Center, most of whom were elderly. Since then, there has been a steady stream of patients coming for infusion, and four nurses have been busy shuttling between the infusion room and the inpatient ward. This health center has nearly 10 wards with about 20 beds, most of which are already being used, but there are several empty beds.

In one of the wards, 89-year-old Father Liu is receiving infusion. In a side accompanied by the villagers, Father Liu is a five-policy household in the town of Wang Fan village in front of the temple, infected with a new crown lung infection, the condition is more serious, has been hospitalized in the health center for a few days.

Mr. Wu is preparing to go through the discharge procedures is the temple before the town of Wang Fan village villagers, December 16 last year, 60-year-old he ended up working abroad back home. 4 days later, he had a fever, chills, ate some ibuprofen antipyretics, the fever went down that night. The next morning he felt fine, but in the afternoon he again developed a fever and he took a little more cold medicine and amoxicillin. On the afternoon of the third day, he again had a low fever and carried the symptoms at home for a few days without ever going away, and also experienced chest tightness and other discomfort. On December 29 last year, Mr. Wu came to the temple before the town health center, the doctor for his examination told him that he had bronchitis, slight lung infection, for his hospitalization procedures.

“Receiving daily infusion treatment, the main medication is cephalosporin, and now the symptoms have basically disappeared.” Mr. Wu introduced, since he lived in the past few days, many patients to the health center daily infusion, hospitalization has also increased, most patients are triggered by the infection of the new crown, the majority of the elderly.

Mr. Wu also said that there are six families near his home, there is only one person who did not have fever and other symptoms during this period, but the other people’s symptoms are not as serious as his, basically recovered after taking some medicine at home. His partner, daughter, son and grandson in the field have also had fevers and have now recovered.

“I’m going to ask my son not to come home for New Year’s this year, it’s a sensitive time of year.” Mr. Wu said.

Wang Fan Village, Terizen Town, Father Liu is also a patient in the inpatient ward, he is 73 years old, is also a left-behind elderly, living alone at home, his son and daughter-in-law working outside. Last December 18, he appeared fever, cough, body pain and other uncomfortable symptoms, ate cold medicine has been resting at home, but the uncomfortable symptoms never disappeared, but also the symptoms of heart discomfort. In desperation, he came to the temple before the town health center for medical treatment. The doctor diagnosed him with a case of white lung, requiring hospitalization. After a few days of treatment, Father Liu’s symptoms improved significantly, and in two more days he could be discharged from the hospital.

“I used to be in good health, no underlying disease, and received three doses of the new crown vaccine. Other villagers usually get better after a few days, I do not know why just my situation is so serious?” Father Liu felt a little puzzled.

On the morning of January 5, a farming family in Xiaochi Village, Xiaochi Town, was handling a funeral service, and the deceased was an 81-year-old man. The old man previously suffered from underlying disease, the symptoms of fever a few days ago, a little cold medicine at home, the symptoms have been alleviated, but suddenly passed away two days ago.

Mr. Wu, a patient hospitalized in the temple front town health center

There are medical care for three days and three nights of continuous work

January 3 at 3:30 p.m., the temple before the town of Luoxi village health room village doctor Fan is on duty, at this time there is not a patient to see. Dr. Fan introduced the current round of infection, Luoxi village is estimated to have eighty percent of the villagers have fever and other symptoms, but most have recovered. He believes that this round of the epidemic in the village is basically over, and there are still a few villagers who have vomiting and diarrhea.

Dr. Fan said that the villagers generally recovered from the fever in a day or two, and there were not many serious ones. The individual elderly people who died were because they had underlying diseases and were old. At the beginning of this round of the epidemic, the village health room lacked drugs such as ibuprofen and even flowers to clear the distemper, but there are some other cold medicines, and recently ibuprofen has arrived. During this period, when villagers come to the health room, if the situation is not too serious, he will prescribe some western medicine or Chinese medicine, and suggest that they are at home with the use of ginger water foot soak, pear stew black sesame and other indigenous methods of treatment, if the situation is more serious, he will suggest that they go to a higher level of medical institutions for medical treatment.

Temple town health center deputy director Dr. Wang told reporters that not many villagers came to the clinic because of fever recently, most patients who came to the clinic were infected with the new crown after a lung infection and other conditions.

Dr. Wang said that the peak of the current outbreak started around the middle of December last year and reached its peak at the end of December. The peak period has basically passed, but there are still more patients coming to the clinic with new crown in recent days. There are currently about 20 patients hospitalized at the health center, and about half a dozen patients requiring infusions are seen daily, some of whom have symptoms of lung infection.

Dr. Wang said that there are 42 medical staff in their hospital and during the current round of the epidemic, the higher-level medical institutions have pulled individual medical staff from the health center due to manpower constraints. During the most tense period of the epidemic situation, almost all of the hospital’s medical and nursing staff were infected, and manpower was very tight at that time.

“Even though the manpower was tight, we had to keep the hospital running normally. At the peak of the epidemic, I was working day and night shifts in a row, even when I had a fever. One of the nursing staff in the hospital worked for three days and three nights in a row because all the other nursing staff were running a fever at the time. At that time, all the medical staff in the hospital were gritting their teeth and finally survived that most difficult period.” Dr. Wang believes that from now until the Spring Festival, the hospital will still be in a relatively busy state, and some elderly people who have sequelae after contracting the new crown will come to the hospital one after another, and they have made appropriate preparations in terms of personnel and medicines, and the higher-level health committee has been closely monitoring the situation of the epidemic and actively guiding them in their work.

At 9 a.m. on January 5, few patients came to the health center in Xiaochi Town, Taihu County, and only one elderly patient received an infusion in the infusion room. The companion who accompanied him to the clinic told the reporter that the old man did not come to the clinic because of the new crown infection. The inpatient ward of the health center also did not see any patients hospitalized.

A doctor at the Xiaochi Town Health Center introduced the local peak of the current outbreak, which lasted for about 2 weeks from mid-December last year to about December 28. Of the 41 medical staff at their hospital, 39 had fevers and other conditions, but have all recovered. “At the peak, more than 100 patients came to the hospital every day, and some patients with serious conditions went directly to hospitals in the county.” The doctor said that the hospital had also experienced drug tension and manpower crunch during the peak of the epidemic, but they have all been resolved.

Worried about the return tide aggravate the epidemic

In the afternoon of January 4, Taihu County People’s Hospital, the new hospital internal medicine clinic, five consultation rooms are posted at the entrance of the words “respiratory disease specialist clinic”, but the waiting area is not too many patients waiting. The nurse said that if the patient’s condition is not serious, it is recommended to postpone the hospitalization. In the respiratory medicine ward on the 12th floor of the hospital’s inpatient department, most of the beds were already in use.

Dr. Liu Hun, deputy director of the emergency department of Taihu County People’s Hospital, introduced that during this round of epidemic prevention and control, their hospital, as the largest hospital in the area, has undertaken most of the treatment of serious and critically ill patients and become the main battlefield of the local fight against the epidemic. Since mid-December, the hospital’s emergency department has been making more than 40 visits per day, seeing two to three hundred patients per day, and now nearly a thousand hospitalized, most of whom are seriously and critically ill patients infected with the new crown. Due to more local mountainous areas, sometimes the single visit time is more than 3 hours, the medical and nursing staff is very hard, and almost all of them are overloaded during this period. Some time ago, more than 40 medical staff in the emergency department were almost all infected, but due to manpower constraints, the vast majority of medical staff insisted on being on duty with illness.

Taihu County People’s Hospital Internal Medicine Waiting Area

Liu Xun introduced, in order to cope with this round of the epidemic, the hospital has increased nearly 200 beds on top of 800 beds, and also made adequate preparations in advance in terms of personnel and materials, and the local county party committee, county government and county health committee gave full support in all aspects.

“From December 17 to 27 last year, it was the peak time for our hospital to receive patients in the current round of the epidemic. From December 27 last year to the present, the number of patients admitted to the hospital every day is still at a high level, and it is estimated that this situation will continue until the Spring Festival this year.” Liu Xun said that he is now most worried about the situation of more local people infected with the new crown as the local migrant workers return home one after another.

Liu Xun introduced, the hospital from leaders to doctors, from ambulance drivers to nurses, all adhere to the front-line positions, all medical and nursing staff to “wartime” state to respond to this round of the epidemic.

On January 7, a staff member of Taihu County Center for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters that the epidemic in Taihu County has passed the peak of infection and is in the peak period of hospitalization, and the overall situation of epidemic prevention and control is stable and orderly. In order to ensure a smooth and safe passage through the peak of the epidemic, Taihu County has established a flat command system with the main responsible party and government comrades at the county and village levels sitting in command, coordinating the county’s medical treatment forces, enhancing medical treatment capabilities, guaranteeing the supply of drugs, strengthening the detection of key populations and medical services, and caring for frontline medical staff and many other measures.