Inside IKSHPK labs, where the invisible enemy is discovered

Seven months now at the Kosovo National Institute of Public Health, testing is under way for COVID-19. So far, Moldovan microbiology labs at this institution have tested over 50,000 samples in the suspicious persons with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and within a day in this laboratory by RT- PCRs are testing over 500 samples.

This very institution has become one of the most important of the country, where citizens are all “s and ears” in publishing test results.

With criticism for delaying the release of the results, the workers of this institution have faced, but their daily work is not easy. They are the silent heroes who do a tremendous job identifying the invisible enemy.

Zana Kachanic Deva, an IKSHPK microbiology specialist, shows the entire procedure for the discovery of the coronary. After accepting ground samples, they are labeled and then recorded on the base date.

“In this part we have the room where samples come from, from the ground, from other cities, from Pristina, whether from clinics, Infectious Clinic, Pulmological, from the Sports Medicine Center. All these samples first come to this place for order, to be labeled, then it means every sample is with the direction that is labeled in the next step to register on our base date, so we have the computers on which we record them. Then they will be processed further for testing”, she says.

Then it shows that samples are sent to extract genetic material in rooms known as the contaminated “” due to the great risk of becoming infected.

The next “is the extraction of the genetic material from the sample, which is done in spaces destined for this purpose only. Otherwise these rooms are known as dirty or polluted rooms because here is the greatest risk of coronary infection, since the sample means that it contains the virus if it contains if the patient is infected, it should be taken further into those steps until you extract genetic material for further analysis through PCR. This is one of the rooms destined for extraction, we have teams working”, she says.

Dr. Deva shows the last step taken to achieving the results of samples. And their results are further prosecuted by the Department of Epidemiology in IKSHPK.

“Once the sample is put in place, that's the work plan for how the samples will be listed. So you see here a form of the work plan you have here... and you put it in for reading, and once the test is done, we get the results that have proved positive, we write them down in this plan where we have all the samples that have been counted on the basis of their number of how they entered the camera and put data on the base date and we all report the results to the Epidemiology Department at ICHPK. The Department of Epidemiology further deals with the management of cases that prove positive”, she says.

The same work procedure is now and for many months, which has been marked by overtime with the sole goal of citizens getting results at the most optimistic time.

But all this work, Dr. Deva says it has not been easy and that they are always endangered by the possibility of coronary infection.

Early in February, when tests began for COVID-19, it shows that there have been a smaller number of workers and there has been greater difficulty at work. But over the course of months this number of workers has already increased and work has been enabled in two shifts.

The first cases with COVIED-19, Kosovo has marked them on March 13th, which then this number has gone on and on growing, and now infected with coronary, are over 13 thousand people. Dr. Deva recalls the day when the country marked the record 276 positive cases with COVID-19, which says it was a very serious day for all personnel.

It's probably been a pretty rough day, even though we've had enough days like this. There are even cases of deaths among health personnel and those days, even though we're locked up here, we're not in clinics, for us those days have been quite hard experiences. However, we still try to be committed to our work to give the results as soon as we can and we cannot let go of despair at the moment”, she says.

Seeing the hard work facing the workers of the Medieval Microbiology Laboratory in IKSHPK, Bland Jerliu, the bachelor of laboratory biochelory, had decided since March to voluntarily join the IKSHPK team.

He points out why he has moved him to make this decision until he points out that his environment with work has not been too difficult because of some practice in this Institute, which says that this time he faced a more mysterious virus.

I have not considered anything other than serving the country and helping the institute get the correct results and services as correct as any citizen. That was one of the reasons I came here, to help the country, to serve the Institute and the homeland”, he says.

Jeraliu, who's engaged in the samples extraction section, says he didn't escape infection with COVID-19 either. However, he did not take this virus to his workplace but was infected by his mother, and he is happy that he did not transmit it to any workmate.

Mother had first symptoms, then other family members. The symptoms I've had, the mother also had fever, fever, and similar symptoms that are known to affect this virus. Dad's had more problems, he even got two weeks of therapy, and that's how we went, two weeks later, everything went okay. Thank God we're all fine and not easy to call it, but with a little suffering, but in the end we have triumphed over the virus... It's been a mixed feeling, first of all, to say thank you, that maybe I'm doing it because it takes a while with this virus, at least I caught it. But not good when I just started with a little more effect on my dad and then a worse clinical situation”, he says.

On the other hand, microbiologist Rzazarta Bajrami tells of working days during this period when the country is facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Without schedule, she calls this working period at the IKSHPK lab where the choreography is discovered.

Bajrami, a mother of three girls, says it is very difficult to keep the distance from them.

There's been a normal resolution, but by respecting those protective measures, clothes and uniforms, masks, all protocols according to standards and very small opportunities and we haven't had infections inside the lab... I'm a mother of three girls, I've missed a lot of kids that we've been working on for months, like, four months. I missed you, I missed you every day, every day I was told to go to work. But we've somehow tried to save them and save them”, she says.

Although the additional staff has already come, the work has been a little relieved, she says she continues to be cautious because she does not want to be infected with COVID-19.

The workers of the National Public Health Institute of Kosovo have been at war to discover the choreography since February 13th, and on March 13th, when the first cases with COVID-19 have been tested by more than 50,000 suspicious SARS-CoV-2 people. Over 13 thousand people have been infected with this virus while over 500 people have died.