MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Infection disease doctor Ksenia Lishko tells TASS about how doctors live at the front of fighting COVID-19, about professional secrets, problems and superstition.
Reporters were not allowed inside the Murmansk Region’s Center for Infectious Diseases, where COVID-19 patients receive treatment. The center also includes an observation facility. The guard and police see to it that no strangers sneak inside.
An infectious disease doctor agreed to meet us, though in a neutral place.
Who is the doctor?
In due time, together with a local press photographer Lev Fedoseyev, we get to the infectious disease unit. Here arrives a car, the center’s logo on its side. A woman in uniform jumps out from the car, grabs three bags and heads for the entrance. We follow her.
"Hello, are you Ksenia? We are waiting for you," I say, hurrying after her. I am surprised to hear a voice from another side: "I am Ksenia, hello!"
Looking in the direction of the voice I can see a tall, slim girl with curly hair, huge eyes and a warm smile — I would rather say she is a model than a doctor.
"I am Ksenia Lishko, an ID physician, acting chief of the regional center for infectious diseases. You wanted to meet me. Ask your questions."
"Listen, I’ll be a doctor!"
"The idea to become a doctor surprised even me," Ksenia said. "Nobody was a physician in my family, mom and dad worked on the railroad. So I go to the kitchen and tell the parents: "Here, I’ll study to become a doctor!" Their reaction surprised me. "Fine," they said. I was an eight-grade school student, and I thought they did not believe me. Since early childhood I attended ballet classes. They must have thought I wanted to become a dancer."
In 2016, she graduated from Petrozavodsk State University (in Karelia). In her first years Ksenia focused on children’s diseases, but later on continued training to become an infectious disease doctor.
"It is a medical specialty, which has a very vast and interesting diagnostics, there is always space for thoughts and considerations, you do not need to cut, suture. What you need is to think, analyze and make decisions quickly," Ksenia said.
The Murmansk Center for infectious diseases is the first and only place, where Ksenia Lishko has been working. She took an internship program here, and here she began to work as a doctor. Recently, she’s been appointed acting chief doctor at the department.
"You’ll have to study all the time, like a teacher, a reporter," I say, asking "doesn’t it fear you off?"
"This is exactly what I enjoy in the profession. When updated, you have no fears."
One-on-one with the virus
Over three years at the infectious disease center, Ksenia has fought malaria from Africa, and dengue fever from Sri Lanka. People living in the North, love traveling, and often return home with various "surprises."
As for the new coronavirus, it is a puzzle, which the world’s scientists in infections and epidemics are to solve, even though they are well familiar with RNA viruses, one of which is COVID-19.
"Usually, such viruses cause diseases in light forms, but some patients may have heavy acute respiratory syndromes, which may cause quick lethality. Symptoms are similar to regular ARVI: dry coughing, fever, and dysosmia (a distortion of the perception of smell). Here, an ID physician should focus on the epidemic anamnesis - to where the patient has traveled and who the patient has contacted," Ksenia said.
It is not about fears
I ask her how dangerous it may be to enter infections wards a few times a day and whether she fears to face the virus. It is not about fears, she replied.
"Knowledge is our weapon. We are not naked in this fight. We have all the necessary protection: the overalls, masks, shoe covers, gloves. The department has separate clean and contaminated zones," the doctor told us. "Our office, a room to relax, a room to eat are in the clean zone - here we have nothing to fear, just to follow the instructions."
"You know, I can’t say our life has changed much. We work in a regular mode: shifts, overnight shifts, visiting patients, diagnoses, treatment, and release of the recovered."
Unlike doctors at some hospitals across Russia, physicians in Murmansk do not stay at work for days. After shifts they go home.
"In other regions, where situations are worse, I know that doctors stay at hospitals. They have specially equipped living zones. We do not have anything of the kind. It is simply not necessary," she explained.
The "Cuban" will make it
The infectious disease unit could take 50 patients at a time, now it has been upgraded to treat 130 people. The Center has five lung ventilation systems, and the intensive care unit has sufficient number of such systems. As yet, Ksenia said, they have not been used.
"We have a few patients, who need oxygen, you might have seen patients with thin tubes coming into nose to help them breathe. With the treatment we make, all patients have positive dynamics," the doctor said.
I ask cautiously, whether the well-known Cuban is at the center. The man, who lives in Apatity, brought the infection from a holiday in Cuba and refused to isolate himself.
"You are right, here he is!" Ksenia smiles. "Nothing threatens his life, unlike the media had said. On the Internet, somebody has already "buried" the man, but he’s alive! His condition is stable, which is most important, the dynamics is positive. I won’t give any details, it’s against the rules. I can only add, he’ll stay here, we’ll treat him a bit more. Another four patients have already recovered and went home."
Don’t panic
Strange as it may seem, Ksenia stressed, presently at the Center in Murmansk there are practically no regular patients, suffering from regular infections - almost everyone brought there is suspected of having the coronavirus infection. Most likely, people listen to what physicians say and pay more attention to their health. However, Ksenia gave a few recommendations.
"When wearing a mask, always hide the nose, or the protection won’t work. When you wear a mask, the virus may stay inside if you sneeze, but through disposed nose you may ‘catch’ it from others," she said.
Isolation, Ksenia and her colleagues said, is a most effective measure. It cannot stop the disease, but will surely cut the number of infected.
"I’d like to stress - not with every ARVI symptom people should rush [to the Center]. If for quite a time you have not traveled outside the region, have not contacted anybody suspicious but you do have ARVI symptoms, it does not mean you have the coronavirus infection. Don’t panic. Be on guard, continue the self-isolation, follow the sanitary regime, but never panic."
"Superdoctor" about superstition
We walk Ksenia to the Center’s Emergency Department. A nurse opens the door. Taisiya Samokhvalova has been working there for many years, she knows all the doctors.
We ask her about the new chief doctor. "She, though very young, is highly professional. And - she is caring, attentive, will never just walk by, will always ask how’s life, how do you feel. She comes to see patients not only during regular visits. She’s a Superdoctor!" the nurse said.
We are about to leave. I ask the last question: are there any superstition signs, which every physician observes.
"They do exist, and they work," the superdoctor replied with a smile. "One of them is: never tell a doctor - I hope you’ll have a quiet shift!".