Coronavirus: Yemen medics braced for ‘unspeakable’ crisis

Yemen’s health system is in a state of collapse – leaving it unlikely to be able to cope with an outbreak of coronavirus.

Dr Shalal Hasel is a hardworking official from the Department of Epidemiological Surveillance in the Yemeni province of Lahj. Usually his job focuses on dealing with outbreaks of cholera but now he’s working round the clock to make sure Yemen is preparing properly for Covid-19.

Although – at 30 – he’s young and energetic, he’s already sounding despondent.

“You’ll know about the deteriorating health situation in Yemen – especially after conflict and war. Hospitals here are limited and not equipped to receive coronavirus cases.”

To prove his point, he’s sent me some pictures of doctors in rather flimsy looking aprons and rudimentary masks.

“We lack adequate PPE (personal protection equipment). Rapid response teams have received training in Covid-19 case management but they do not possess personal protection. The WHO [World Health Organization] must fill this void.”
The WHO is helping to equip and staff 37 so-called “isolation centres” in Yemen for coronavirus patients.

Some of these are existing health facilities that have been re-purposed and others are old buildings turned into makeshift hospitals. But here too there are other shortages, according to Dr Hasel.

“We don’t have enough infra-red temperature measuring devices; there’s a shortage of swabs for diagnosis and even the surveillance teams in the area do not have an ambulance to use for any suspected cases.”

‘Fear in the faces’
Figures from the WHO show there are just four labs for the whole country that do coronavirus testing. A fifth is due to come online soon.
Mohamed Alshamaa from Save The Children is equally apprehensive about what may hit the country’s hospitals – only half of which are operational due to fighting.

“You can see the fear in the faces of not just the doctors but the management too. We have some doctors in one or two hospitals who have sent away normal respiratory patients fearing they are coronavirus cases because they do not have the right protective equipment.”