Mona Ellaithi. Sudan
12/05/2020
Mona Ellaithi holds a PhD in Human Genetics from Al-Neelain University/ Lübeck University-Sudan/Germany and is currently an Assistant Professor in Human Genetics at Al-Neelain University, Khartoum. She was part of the Science by Women programme and carried out her research at BioCruces. She worked on her project “Detection of common variants associated with Sudanese patients diagnosed with disorders of sexual development (DSDs) using NGS sequencing (Exome and Panel sequencing technology)”.
Sudanese government recognizes its poor health capacity
At the 12th of March, the Sudanese government has announced the first COVID-19 infected person who was a Sudanese coming from abroad. Immediately after that, the government of Sudan has shutdown schools and Universities as well as some governmental sectors. Later more reported cases of foreigners as well as Sudanese were publicized.
The Ministry of health immediately commenced with the necessary measures to protect people and asked them to stay at home. Soon after the lockdown was declared in all over Sudan provinces and Sudanese government closed the boarders. People were asked to stay at home and only go out if necessary.
The Ministry of health spread pamphlets and posters about COVID19 and its way of transmission and how people can protect them-selves from the virus. These posters were posted in bakeries, supermarkets and even the streets.
Sudanese government recognizes its poor health capacity. The Ministry of health took all the possible measures to facilitate health care for infected people in all around the county. Specific hospitals were set aside for COVID-19 patients.
The role of the media
Each hospital has its trained team to deal with corona infected patients. However the Ministry of health honesty announced the shortage in ventilators and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and even COVID-19 tests. Therefore; the government asked people to stay at home in order to minimize the daily rate of infection or to help eradicate the virus. Daily reports about infected people, recovered and dead are published by the Ministry of Health for the public.
The Sudan national TV and radios broadcasted programs about the virus and the importance of staying at home and take protective measures as washing hands, wearing masks. The broadcast also included programs about the virus its nature and ways to transmission.
Support from NGOs
Non-governmental societies worked on preparing sanitizers for people so that to overcome the lack in the markets and also provided free sanitizers for poor people and homeless. In addition some small factories provided masks and additional sanitizers. Social media play a major role in the dispersal of knowledge. The Ministry of Social Welfare provided support for families in need. Different charities are working on providing food for poor people. However there are still a large number of Sudanese families are affected by the lockdown because they depend on daily income.
On the 8th of May the total number of infected were 1111, dead 59 and recovered 102. The Ministry of health continues on emphasise the importance of staying at home and taking the protective measured.