COVID-19 Doesn’t Stop Nigerian Nurse and AU Graduate, Elisha Ishaya

When Elisha Friday Ishaya graduated from Africa University, he was excited about providing the best health care possible. Then COVID-19 hit.

By late August, the 55 African Union Member States reporting COVID19 data had recorded more than a million cases and 27,000 deaths. According to the World Health Organization (July 29), more than 10,000 health workers in the 40 African countries that report such data had been infected.

Job descriptions changed overnight, and health care workers like Ishaya faced a host of new challenges, including lack of protective equipment and medication, funding gaps, food insecurity and poor information systems, to name a few.

“Despite the fact that the pandemic has been ongoing globally for over five months,” Ishaya said, “many still don’t believe that the coronavirus exists. All over the major cities, people can be seen not adhering to social distancing guidelines, not using masks, and not wearing gloves or sanitizing their hands.” Along with being at a high risk of virus transmission, health care workers are exposed to violence as people object to screening or quarantining. As security forces attempt to enforce lockdowns, it is not unusual for health care workers to lose rental contracts, be denied access to shops or transportation, or experience physical assaults.

A 2015 AU alumnus with a bachelor’s degree in nursing, Ishaya serves as a perioperative nurse at Federal Medical Centre Keffi in Nigeria. When his hospital became an official care center for the pandemic, the number of patients admitted for treatment and emergency surgery increased significantly. “Most of the [other] hospitals,” he said, “are no longer accepting patients due to fear of COVID-19.”

Hope Triumphs over Despair

But workers remain steadfast. Ishaya recalled preparations by a 50-member team for surgical separation of conjoined twins. “I was the team leader for the theater nurses and coordinator,” he said. Days before the scheduled surgery, he was one of 17 members of the 50-member medical team who tested positive for COVID-19. The surgery was done with limited personnel. After 14 days of quarantine, he was retested, and the result was negative. Ishaya is back on the job. “Glory be to God!” he said.

Adapted from an article by Barbara Dunlap-Berg