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MSF supports Iraqi hospitals responding to the COVID-19 outbreak

15 Apr 20

Recent days have seen a significant rise in the number of patients with COVID-19 in Iraq, with over 1000 infections and 60 confirmed deaths, according to the Ministry of Health (MOH). Since the virus started to spread across the country, the capital, Baghdad, has been the city reporting most cases and deaths.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) began supporting Baghdad’s Ibn al-Khatib Hospital, one of three designated by the MOH to treat patients with COVID-19 in the city. MSF’s team assessed the hospital’s readiness to deal with the outbreak and started providing hospital staff with training on infection prevention and control (IPC) and triage management. These preparations will ensure that COVID-19 patients receive proper treatment, while still protecting other patients and staff from infection.

The infectious diseases hospital was destroyed in the war against IS group and was rebuilt by MSF in 2019 and donated to MOH.

MSF teams collaborating with local hospitals 

“The initial goal of our intervention is to help the hospital handle suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients, to make sure they are welcomed and treated as well as possible in such circumstances, and to also avoid having new patients with hospital-acquired infections,” explains Shaukat Muttaqi, MSF Head of Mission in Iraq. “To reach this objective, the MSF team will be working in collaboration with local hospital staff.”

MSF is also supporting local health authorities elsewhere in Iraq with their COVID-19 responses. In Mosul, in Ninewa governorate, MSF has prepared a building in the Al Salam Health complex, to be dedicated to the isolation of suspected cases.

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Located right next door to Al Salam, Al-Shifaa Hospital, which was rebuilt by MSF in 2019, has been identified by local health authorities as to the main hospital for referral of COVID-19 patients in Ninewa governorate. MSF also plans to convert its own post-operative care facility, located in the Al Salam Health complex, so that it can support Al-Shifaa Hospital in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

“The healthcare system in Mosul and across Ninawa governorate, in general, was heavily impacted by the war in 2017. MSF is willing to do its part to help prevent the outbreak from adding to the suffering and loss that people in the city have already lived through,” adds Shaukat Muttaqi.

MSF continues to deliver health services to vulnerable communities 

In Erbil governorate, MSF teams started collaborating with three of MOH hospitals assigned for COVID-19 treatment, with the aim to provide technical support on infection prevention and control measures, patient triage, and mental health support.

To support Iraqi Ministry of Health on facing COVID-19, MSF is providing MOH hospital staff with technical support on infection prevention and control and patient triage.

Elsewhere in Iraq, MSF projects continue to provide health services to vulnerable communities across the country. These services include surgical, neonatal, paediatric and maternity care, non-communicable disease treatment, emergency care, and mental health support. MSF has put additional preventive measures in place to limit the risk of infection for patients and staff in its regular projects.

“Around Iraq, MSF supports hundreds of extremely vulnerable people every day through our medical programmes. It is vital to facilitate the smooth movement of medical supplies and staff, and to ensure that the provision of essential, and sometimes life-saving, medical care to patients in our ongoing projects continues,” concludes Muttaqi.

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