The high percentage of deaths from COVID-19 in Victoria are from aged care facilities, and that pattern seems likely to continue, with hundreds more expected to die in the coming weeks. This has to put more pressure on the Australian Government and turns everyone's focus on aged care as the Royal Commission continues.
While this pandemic has ignited the debate over the poor care of residents in aged care facilities, it's not the first time that it has happened. Twenty years ago there was an outcry when it was revealed that staff were using "kerosene baths" to rid residents of scabies. Unfortunately, Scabies lives on today in Australia's aged care.
Understaffed, poorly trained aged care workers can carry Scabies on their hands and a lack of infection control protocols mean that it sweeps through homes rapidly.
Scabies is just one of many infections that can be easily spread in the close contact environment of aged care facilities. Coronavirus, however, is proving deadly, and the infection protocols that have so long been called for are still sadly lacking as Coronavirus spreads seemingly without check through aged care homes in Australia.
