Opinion: COVID-19 and Its Impact on the Vulnerable

By Chinezerem Agbakuru

Being vulnerable in the medical field implies that a person is at risk of contracting a particular disease, in this case, Covid-19 disease.

If for instance, Covid-19 disease is in the air and out of about ten people two or three of them contract the disease faster, those two or three are said to be vulnerable to the disease.

The vulnerable here include the elderly, especially those above seventy years of age because their immunity is low;
Children below age 16 including infants whose systems are still working to build immunity.

Others are people with some disease conditions such as high blood pressure, kidney disease, HIV/AIDS, severe liver conditions, and different types of cancer. For this set of people, these disease conditions have depleted their immunity. In other words, their bodies find it difficult to fight diseases that invade them.

Included here also are people with comorbidity I.e, those with more than one disease existing in their body at the same time. But all hope is not lost for the vulnerable.

According to Rev. Stanley Ogochukwu Okere, a medical officer in the Covid-19 Management team at the Covid-19 Isolation Centre,  Amachara Specialist hospital, Umuahia, the vulnerable should avoid crowds.

If he/she must be exposed to a crowd, then he should use a face mask and observe other covid-19 protocols.

The government has made vaccines available. The elderly and indeed everyone should get vaccinated. Vaccination improves your immunity I.e the ability of your body to fight diseases including covid-19 disease.

So, if you have not been fully vaccinated, it is necessary to get vaccinated today.