While coronavirus was wreaking havoc on lives of the people around the world some people left no stone unturned to dedicate themselves to the services of the denizens putting their lives in jeopardy. One such man is DrMahmood Hossain who is currently working at Kurmitola General Hospital, a dedicated Covid-hospital in Dhaka. Experienced in medicine, this audacious and benign doctor recently opened up to FashionBloom and talked about his tough experience of working with corona patients and other issues related to him.

There are so many professions available.What inspired you to become a doctor?

“In my childhood, I was not aware of the role of a doctor and didn’t have the maturity of thinking about becoming a doctor, but as soon as I realized that doctors can serve a nation and its people, I decided to become a doctor. The best part of being a doctor is I get to treat and serve people face to face. Of course, other professions like engineers, lawyers and public or private service holders also work for the people; however, the process of serving people from those professions is lengthier than treating patients. Doctors can serve people with instant solution and provide relief for any kind of pain they face.”

Since you are a doctor and responsible for treating people, what was your role during the coronavirus pandemic and how will you describe your experience?

“When the first COVID-19 case was detected on March 8, 2020, I prepared myself and propped up my mindset that I will serve the COVID-19 patients even if I have to risk my life. Meanwhile, the government issued several directives to minimize the death rate and keep everyone safe. For instance, people with underlying diseases— diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory issue or any other kind of underlying illness — must follow the safety guidelines strictly.

Although I have diabetes and had the chance to shift my service while working atKurmitola General Hospital, I didn’t walk away from serving COVID-19 patients because I always had the courage in me that kept pushing me to remain in the frontline. It is worth mentioning while providing treatment to the covid-19 patients, I was affected and remained in the quarantine till I recovered fully.

While treating the COVID-19 patients, I have seen all the health professionals kept a distance from the patients. Needless to say, at the beginning of the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, everyone thought if one gets affected, their life is at stake. Hence, this kind of misconception led many to ignore patient’s psychology. Nevertheless, I always kept believing in me and strived to treat patients with everything I have. For instance, during treating my patients, I used to counsel them and motivate themwith the view to giving my patients enough courage to fight, and you know, mental strength plays a significant role in such instances.”

To date, over 7,000 people have died from coronavirus in our country and the infection and the death rates are on the rise. Will you call this as ‘second wave’ and what is your view in this regard?

“Yes, the infection and death rate have increased in the last 2 months, and I think that coronavirus pandemic will last in our country till the middle of 2021. Also, I don’t think there is any confusion about that – we are already seeing countries around the world dealing with a second wave of the virus and we, doctors too, must be prepared for this kind circumstance.

However, the vaccine is on the way which will minimize the infection and death rate with its protective power. Moreover, herd immunity system – when more than 75-80 percent people get infected by the same virus they develop the immune system automatically anddon’t get affected second time -will develop by the time vaccine will be available in Bangladesh. I believe that herd immunity and vaccine, in combination, will lessen the infection and death rate significantly, but coronavirus will not go away; instead, it will remain in ‘sporadic’ form.”

Where do you see yourself in the coming years and what are your future plans as far as treating people is concerned?

“No doubt that I always strive to keep up with the times and increase my skill so that I can give more quality treatment to the people. For an example, ‘diagnosis’ is the most challenging part in this field because it is solely responsible for determining the kind of treatment. In order to become more accurate and precise in terms of identifying the disease of a patient, I am constantly upskilling and pushing myself and I want to spend rest of my life providing quality treatment to the people and serve the nation directly.

I also want to add that since we have established a private hospital (AMZ Hospital), we have the plan to work on creating ‘Acute Medicine’, a model which will operate similarly asa one-stop-service (OSS). This acute medicine service will play the most significant role in terms of facilitating a patient with proper management and treatment. In simple words, with this acute medicine model patients will get instant relief from pain and also get quality treatment in time. We are looking forward to launching this on pilot-project base and if we find it successful, we will expand it across the country under the patronization of the government.”