The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 562 (January 12 - 25 2022)

Page14 TheTrumpet JANUARY 12 - 25 2022
Health
Doctor recalls trauma and triumphs
with Covid-19 patients
Dr. Abe Manase Lori is haunted by
the memory of a 45-year-old
patient who succumbed to
Covid-19 at the beginning of the
pandemic in South Sudan.
“This was a time when we ran out of
resources…It was unfortunate. We lost
him,” said the 34-year-old doctor, who
works at the Dr. John Garang Infectious
Disease Unit in Juba, the country’s
capital.
Since April of last year, conditions
have improved. The facility is now
managed by International Medical Corps,
a global humanitarian organization that
equipped the facility with 60 extra beds,
bringing its patient capacity to 84. The
renovations also included a temperaturecontrolled
dispensing pharmacy and a
fully equipped laundry area to boost
infection prevention and control
measures.
“Not having the Dr. John Garang
Infectious Disease Unit would have been
a national disaster,” said Lori, who hails
from Kajo Keji in South Sudan’s Central
Equatoria State. He grew up without easy
access to healthcare, having spent more
than 15 years of his young life as a
refugee in Uganda.
Lori said that improvements in the
infectious disease unit have made a
significant difference. Between April and
June 2020, at the height of the pandemic
in South Sudan, the recovery rate for
Covid-19 patients was 75%. Between
July and December 2020, the recovery
rate improved to 89%.
The expansion of the infectious
disease unit was the combined effort of
the Ministry of Health, the World Health
Organization, the World Food Program
and International Medical Corps.
The African Development Bank
Group also boosted South Sudan’s efforts
to fight the pandemic. In June 2020, the
Group’s African Development Fund
approved a $4.2 million grant from its
Transitional Support Facility. The grant
fell under the framework of the Bank’s
Covid-19 Response Facility. The funding
also enabled the successful installation of
the country’s first oxygen plant at Juba
Teaching Hospital - a timely project to
cater for critically ill Covid-19 patients.
The days are still tough in the wards of
the country’s only infectious disease unit.
Lori said a typical shift is filled with
emergencies and new arrivals.
“Covid patients are associated with a lot
of stress…so you find they are
traumatized, they believe they are not
Doctor recalls trauma and triumphs with Covid-19 patients
going to survive,” the Juba-trained doctor
said. “Some of them refuse to be put on
oxygen because they think it is a sign
they are going to die.”
Many patients refuse to eat or resist
being cleaned when they wet their beds.
Some are terrified when they see doctors
in head-to-toe protective gear, thinking it
spells their end. “You need to be
understanding,” said Lori.
But he also has a good number of
uplifting patient stories to share: for
example, a 72-year-old man who was
diabetic and hypertensive but managed to
survive the deadly virus after a heavy
regime of treatments. “I am so happy that
we were able to save him,” said Lori.
“And he was able to say thank you for the
support you have given me.”
Children forced to
work and skip meals
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Continued from Page 13<
Montaser and his younger brother
Moayad receive school meals as part
of a Save the Children supported
programme funded by the World
Food Programme. The meal allows
them to attend school during the
morning instead of working all day
and helps them focus on learning.
Ibtihaj, 25, said: “Currently, we
are only eating one meal per day,
because we cannot afford more. The
school feeding programme is very
helpful for my two brothers. The
impact of the price rise in the last two
years is very tough. We manage by
buying fewer things. Also, some
things we do not buy any longer like
tea and coffee. We also buy less
sugar. We buy only the cheapest
things. We also struggle to buy
charcoal, because it is expensive.”
Save the Children’s Country
Director in Sudan, Arshad Malik,
said: “In the coming year nearly
10million people in Sudan will face a
daily struggle to have enough food to
eat, among them more 5 million
children. The situation is critical.
Families like Montaser’s need more
and better social protection programs
to get food on their table, a quality
education, and safe and fulfilling
work for parents.
“We urge the Government of
Sudan to provide more social
protection programs to help
vulnerable families get back on their
feet in the new year, and we call on
the international community to
provide financial support for these
programs. Programs for the most
vulnerable in the country, like the
family support program which has
currently been suspended, must be
revived as a matter of urgency.”
Save the Children has been partnering
with the World Food Program (WFP)
and the Government of Sudan to
deliver school meals to children
across Sudan. School feeding
programs play a critical role in
developing future generations and
reducing disparities by facilitating
access to education and building back
better following the COVID-19
pandemic.
Save the Children in Sudan
operates humanitarian and
development programming in 10 out
of 18 States across the sectors of
education, child protection, child
rights governance, health, nutrition,
access to water and sanitation, and
shelter.