{"id":43694,"date":"2020-09-03T01:23:39","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T01:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43694"},"modified":"2020-09-03T01:23:39","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T01:23:39","slug":"virus-exposes-health-gap-in-tunisia-as-doctors-deplore-lack-of-equipment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=43694","title":{"rendered":"Virus exposes health gap in Tunisia as doctors deplore lack of equipment"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nEL-HAMMA:\u00a0The coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on struggling health services in southeast Tunisia, with residents and doctors in a COVID-19 hotspot deploring a lack of equipment and medics.<\/p>\n

\nThe North African country had managed to contain its outbreak by moving early and imposing strict measures in March, but cases have been on the rise since it reopened its borders on June 27.<\/p>\n

\nGabes province, and especially the town of El Hamma, some 500 km south of the capital Tunis, has become one of the country\u2019s virus epicenters.<\/p>\n

\nMore than 800 of Tunisia\u2019s almost 4,000 coronavirus cases and 11 of its 80 deaths have been recorded in Gabes region \u2014 mostly from El Hamma \u2014 in August alone, according to the Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

\nMost cases have been asymptomatic, but residents of the agricultural town of some 100,000 people fear they will be unable to access treatment if needed.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur hospitals need to be hospitalized, urgently!\u201d Fethi, a resident in his thirties of El Hamma, where a lockdown has been reimposed, said.<\/p>\n

\nThe local hospital has no intensive care beds, and the army set up a field hospital in mid-August to screen suspected cases.<\/p>\n

\nThose in need of hospitalization are usually sent to regional capital Gabes, around 30 kilometers away and home to more than 400,000 people. But the situation there is only marginally better.<\/p>\n

\nThe main regional hospital in Gabes has just two respirators for COVID-19 patients, and two intensive care doctors for the whole hospital \u2014 but the pair only treat non-coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have no intensive care staff for COVID patients,\u201d said Hamida Kwas, head of respiratory medicine at Gabes regional hospital.<\/p>\n

\nIt has just 16 intensive care beds, and all eight beds in the regular coronavirus ward are occupied.<\/p>\n

\nHospital director Hechmi Lakhrach said he fears a \u201ccatastrophe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHealth Ministry officials are aware of the lack of resources, equipment and staff, but \u201cnothing has been done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nPublic health has declined in Tunisia over the past two decades, faced with poor management and corruption, and eroded by an increase in private facilities. Many trained doctors go abroad to work.<\/p>\n

\nServices are also unequally distributed: 13 of Tunisia\u2019s 24 provinces have less than one intensive care bed per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a study on the marginalization of Tunisia\u2019s central and southern regions.<\/p>\n

\nKwas said staff and equipment shortages were \u201cexhausting us morally and physically. We are really afraid of not being able to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDonations from individuals and companies have improved some of Tunisia\u2019s facilities, particularly since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

\nBut even hospitals that have benefited are still sometimes inadequately equipped. At the Gabes hospital, donations allowed the creation of screening rooms for suspected coronavirus cases.<\/p>\n

\nBut these are not in use due to lack of equipment, said Imen Rejeb, head of the emergency department.<\/p>\n

\nShe said suspected coronavirus cases were being hospitalized in the Covid-19 ward alongside confirmed cases, risking contamination.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have no oxygen supply … no respirators, no nurses. We have nothing,\u201d Rejeb said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EL-HAMMA:\u00a0The coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on struggling health services in southeast Tunisia, with residents and doctors in a COVID-19 hotspot deploring a lack of equipment and medics. The North African country had managed to contain its outbreak by moving early and imposing strict measures in March, but cases have been on the rise…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}