Open Journal of Nephrology, 2020, 10, 383-387 https://www.scirp.org/journal/ojneph ISSN Online: 2164-2869 ISSN Print: 2164-2842 DOI: 10.4236/ojneph.2020.104038 Dec. 18, 2020 383 Open Journal of Nephrology Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Haemodialysis Care at a Tertiary Centre in South East Nigeria Olaronke F. Afolabi 1,2* , Monday U. Nwobodo 1 , Chukwuemeka O. Eze 1 , Ugochukwu U. Nnadozie 3 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Alex-Ekweueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria 2 African Institute for Health Policy and Health Systems, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria 3 Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Alex-Ekweueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Nigeria Abstract COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on health services for pa- tients suffering from chronic diseases. Patients suffering from kidney failure require heamodialysis and this modality of treatment is mostly offered in the hospital. Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on haemodialysis care at a tertiary institution in South East, Nigeria include a reduction in the number of hae- modialysis cases during the period of lockdown, an increase in the cost of heamodialysis, scarcity of materials used for the procedure and minor disrup- tion of haemodialylsis care. An improvement in infection control practice at the dialysis unit is observed as a positive effect. It is advocated that the gov- ernment should assist patients with kidney disease and make the procedure free to ameliorate the health and socio-economic hardships faced by the pa- tients during the pandemic. Keywords COVID-19, Heamodialysis Care, Nigeria 1. Introduction Nigeria recorded her first case of COVID-19 on 27th February, 2020 and COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by World Health Organization in March 2020 [1]. With the pandemic, there has been enormous health and socioeco- nomic implications across the globe. COVID-19 pandemic has been found to have significant impacts on health services for non-communicable diseases. During the pandemic, patients suffer- ing from chronic diseases have had treatment services disrupted and this is more severe in low and middles income countries. Partial or complete health services How to cite this paper: Afolabi, O.F., Nwobodo, M.U., Eze, C.O. and Nnadozie, U.U. (2020) Impact of COVID-19 Pan- demic on Haemodialysis Care at a Tertiary Centre in South East Nigeria. Open Journal of Nephrology, 10, 383-387. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojneph.2020.104038 Received: October 23, 2020 Accepted: December 15, 2020 Published: December 18, 2020 Copyright © 2020 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access