Health care workers play important roles in controlling pandemics. However, their health status determines to a great extent the stability or vulnerability of a health system. The stress accruing from high patient flow amidst scarcity of healthcare resources may impact on their health negatively. Stress and lack of a good diet plan may facilitate the development of some diseases such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and chronic kidney disease. These diseases are confirmed correlates of COVID-19 morbidity and fatality. Despite the high awareness of preventive healthcare services among health workers, the prevalence of these diseases are high among them with low treatment and control. Although the prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus are lower than the general population, the prevalence of pre-hypertension and pre-diabetes are higher in health workers than in the general population. Some of these diseases go undiagnosed until their late stages. Thus, increasing their vulnerability to COVID-19. To prevent controllable fatalities, health workers should be screened before they are engaged in the treatment of COVDI-19 patients, irrespective of their previous medical history. Simultaneous testing for comorbidities and COVID-19 should also be carried out in the general population, especially for high-risk groups to prevent future vulnerabilities to communicable diseases.
Key words: COVID-19, Health workers, Vulnerability, Nigeria,
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