Covid-19: Concerns for countries
with fragile health systems
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| Township residents queue for food packages aim COVID-19 in Cape Town |
Aid agencies are sounding the alarm over the spread of the
Covid-19 virus in countries that don’t have adequate health systems to deal
with the onslaught of the pandemic.
By Lydia O’Kane
Over the last few weeks a number of African countries have
reported cases of the virus, with South Africa and Egypt experiencing serious
outbreaks.
Catholic aid organisations say that countries such as
Malawi, Sierra Leone and South Sudan lack vital equipment including ventilators
and intensive care beds to deal with the pandemic.
Fragile health systems
The concern is, that if the virus takes a firm hold in
countries with a lack of healthcare facilities due to conflict, or economies
that can’t support those health structures, the situation could end up being
worse than in the United States, or in hard-hit European countries.
The UK based Catholic Aid Agency for Overseas
Development, CAFOD is
currently helping communities facing the challenges posed by Covid-19.
Matthew Carter is the agency’s Director of Humanitarian
Response; he said that their major concern is around countries outside of
Europe, particularly in Sub-Saharn Africa, Asia, Middle East, Central and Latin
America.
“Many countries in these parts of the world “have incredibly
fragile health systems and economies that can’t support those health systems,
but also many of those countries that have on going underlying crises, either
through drought or through food shortages, and some facing conflict.”
Situation for refugees
He also noted the large numbers of refugees who are on the
move in large groups, or living in cramped refugee camps. That proximity, he
said, “increases their vulnerability.”
Mr Carter highlighted in particular communities in the
Syrian city of Idlib where there are nearly a million refugees living close
together. He added, that the same situations can be seen in Bangladesh
where there are nearly a million Rohingya refugees.
Raising awareness
The CAFOD Director stressed that “there’s no question it
will get to these places”, but he said, preventative measures are key at this
time.
CAFOD is currently working with local partners to raise
awareness through education.
“Lots of our learning” explained Carter, “has been taken
from former programmes which is where the Church worked with the Ebola outbreak,
both in West Africa and more recently in the Democratic Republic of Congo…So
we’re looking at a whole combination of areas of how we raise awareness with
the community… but also ensuring the safety of local experts and partners.”
Importance of faith communities
He pointed out, that in order to raise awareness, there has
been a big emphasis on working with Church leaders and other faith communities
in order to provide education materials, and get the message out.
CAFOD is also working to install community handwashing
facilities with soap and detergent so that people can be safe.
Speaking about the lack of vital equipment such as
ventilators, which are not readily available in some countries, he noted
that according to statistics, Ethiopia only has around twenty ventilators
for the whole country. This is why, he said, “CAFOD’s focus of preparedness,
prevention, awareness raising is so important.” “This is the
critical time, not in four weeks’ time, to try and avert the scale of this
which will affect large parts of the developing world in the most horrific
way.”
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