Over the past few weeks, news has been filled with stories about the deaths of Filipino doctors and other medical frontliners who are fighting COVID -19.

These reports raise fears in other doctors and medical workers who have since found their way to the frontlines, especially those outside Metro Manila and the other urban centers with better medical facilities and access to protective and life-saving equipment.

Doctors and medical workers in small communities and far-flung areas may face greater dangers in confronting the threat of COVID-19, since supply problems were already their daily bane before the SARS-COV-2 virus made its way into the country

My friend and college classmate, Dr. Shane Tan Hassiman, a doctor to the barrios and the OIC municipal health officer of President Manuel Roxas in the province of Zamboanga del Norte said “I bear this burden every day.”

“We lack protective gear, like masks. We have nothing to give to our people. Even if the local government unit has funds for purchasing these things, we don't know where we can buy them. What we do is we are very strict when it comes to the implementation of the 'stay at home' rule. We have 31 barangays, and we are located in a mountainous place, which makes monitoring difficult.”

Hassiman said that when the pandemic started, there were sleepless nights when she worried about possible infections in the community she serves, because she fears that they will be overwhelmed.

“As a doctor, you are everything in a community: You're the manager. Getting the barangay captains and LGU officials to believe you depends on how well you manage things. So, every time I come into work, I need to put aside all my worries," she said. "I need to always have my game face on."

Hassiman said that when she heard about doctors dying on the frontlines in Metro Manila, “I was frightened. I have many friends and acquaintances who work in hospitals."

Dr. Abdul Javar Esturco works as a municipal health officer for Akbar town in Basilan. He thinks the government should revisit policies to protect healthcare workers like them, especially during a crisis like the pandemic brought by COVID-19.

“How about us lowly community doctors? And, of course, if we are able to survive, the medical bill is unspeakable," he said. "Case in point: A doctor who had a P600,000 bill, of which government will only shoulder P100,000.” He was referring to the hospital bills doctors could wind up paying if they contracted COVID-19 in the line of duty.

For Dr. Nur-khan Istarul, who works as a municipal health officer for Tipo-Tipo town, also in Basilan, the pandemic forced him to consider the many sacrifices he has needed to make so he could perform his duty as a community doctor.

“When the pandemic was declared, I knew I would have to make sacrifices, first for my family," Istarul said. "I let them stay with my in-laws for the meantime. Being in the community, I’m exposed to different kinds of illnesses, but this one is kinda scary.”

“For my health team, we've been keeping a list since early January of those who arrived in our area since December," he said. "We have been tracking them and monitoring them. I have a system in place in which every person who arrives in my area has to be subjected to screening for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.”

“When the news of local transmission in the Philippines came out, we were truly unprepared," he said. "I only have a handful of N95 masks, a few boxes of surgical mask, and a couple bottles of alcohol.”

Istarul said that they’ve informed persons under monitoring (PUMs) and persons under investigation (PUIs) to stay home and that he will do medical rounds at their homes. “We did this with alcohol, surgical masks topped with N95 masks, and a lot of guts.”

“I also label my PUMs according to the risk assessment I formulated based on the knowledge of what areas have local transmissions (for Sabah deportees),” he added.

Reacting to the news about doctors dying on the front lines, he said: “It is painful. Sometimes, all you can do is cry, knowing that it could be one of my friends who are hospital-based, someone I know, or worse, it could be me, at any time.” This, he said, are doctors who already have full sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) and with a lot of resources at hand who are falling victim to this virus. “What about us community medics who are relying on do-it-yourself PPE and basic protections?”

A young doctor who refused to be named who works as a doctor to the barrios said he believed that the pandemic calls for a different approach: "Our battlefield is different here. While the channeling of resources to COVID centers is essential for the curative side, we need to shift greater efforts to prevent even a single case here."

In this battle, he said, "we can only be successful if everyone cooperates, from agencies to families to individual levels. To protect ourselves, we have to protect everyone, literally. Health literacy, and the motivation to protect our loved ones, at the end of the day, are the factors that would be in play here.”

For Dr. Paolo Chavez, a doctor to the barrios based in Sulu province, the deaths of his fellow doctor should not be in vain: "Personally the deaths just prompt me to exhaust all efforts. They can't die in vain."

Chavez also said that a strong sense of community makes it a bit easier for him to adjust to this pandemic: "It’s the sense of community that was always there, to begin with. The concept of family that this fight should begin with. It lives strong in any community setting."

In this pandemic, our frontliners are risking their lives to save lives, and help us fight this dreaded disease. We owe it to them to honor and support their sacrifices and heroic efforts by doing our part to help prevent the spread of the contagion by staying home and complying with the quarantine. If we can, we may also want to donate to agencies that are raising funds to provide PPE sets to our front-liners.

This is a fight we are all in together, whether or not we are at the frontlines. Complying with quarantine regulations, and providing support for our frontliners will go a long way toward winning this difficult battle with an enemy none of us can see.