Italian nurse kills herself after testing positive for coronavirus and fearing she'd spread it to her patients
A nursing federation in Italy has revealed how a nurse killed herself after testing positive for coronavirus and fearing she had infected several of her patients.
Thirty-four-year-old Daniela Trezzi was one of the brave health workers fighting on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis at a hospital in Lombardy, the hardest-hit region in Italy.
In a heartbreaking statement on March 24, the National Federation of Nurses of Italy expressed their "pain and dismay" as they confirmed Trezzi's death. According to the organization, she was under "heavy stress" fearing she was passing the deadly virus on to others while trying to bring the crisis under control.
Just when Italy was hoping the mortality rate was finally reducing, the country recorded a staggering 743 new fatalities on March 24. However, the number of infections increased by just eight percent making it the lowest rate of increase since the country recorded its first coronavirus death on February 21.
Trezzi was placed in quarantine after showing coronavirus symptoms and testing positive for the disease. At the time of her diagnosis, she had been working in the intensive care ward of the San Gerardo Hospital in Monza.
According to the nursing federation, a "similar episode had happened a week ago in Venice, with the same underlying reasons."
"Each of us has chosen this profession for good and, unfortunately, also for bad, we are nurses," the federation said. "The condition and stress to which our professionals are subjected are under the eyes of all."
Trezzi was at home since March 10 and "was not under surveillance," according to Mario Alparone, the general manager of San Gerardo Hospital. According to local media reports, authorities are now investigating her death.
Nearly 5,800 health workers have been infected with the novel coronavirus in Italy, according to figures released by an Italian research institute.
This "phenomenon" must be "curbed to safeguard those who take care of us," urged Nino Cartabellotta, the head of the Gimbe foundation which collected the data.
The number of medical workers infected constitutes about eight percent of Italy's total cases, which stands at 69,176 as per the latest figures on March 24.
Now, health officials are analyzing all kinds of data to see whether restrictive measures over two weeks, including bans and closures, have mitigated the crisis in any way. But some have already cautioned that it may be too early to say whether Italy is yet to see the outbreak's peak.
Speaking to La Repubblica, civil protection service chief Angelo Borrelli said the "measures we took two weeks ago are starting to have an effect." But Borrelli noted that more data over the coming days will help show "if the growth curve is really flattening."
The latest report of 743 new deaths nullified any notion that the two days of successive decline would continue along a downward and steady trajectory.
The highest death toll was recorded on March 21, when Italy saw 793 fatalities in a single day.