COVID19 infection prevention campaign in Syria

SEMA INSANI VE TIBBI YARDIM DERNEGI (SEMA) has participated in the response for the spread of the Coronavirus in northwest Syria since its beginning, and it assumed the responsibility to equip and operate three of the COVID-19 hospitals working in north of Syria (which is half of the existing number). The three hospitals are located in Idleb, Kafar Takharim, and Jisr Ash-Shugur and they contain 25 ICU beds and ventilators as well as 130 recovery beds. As the northern areas of Syria reaches the peak of infections, considerable challenges are encountered in the isolation hospitals and they are defined as the following:

• Delay in receiving oxygen cylinders, and this is caused by the delay from suppliers, leading to a great gap in securing the required oxygen, the price of which has risen by four times the usual price.
• Limited financial resources to support the hospitals, which led to a severe shortage in medicine, supplies, ICU drugs and personal protective equipment.
• Hospitals are full of infected patients and they are working at full capacity although having serious lack of qualified staff.
• A relatively large number of the medical staff got infected with the disease and the hospitals are not able to compensate them due to the scarcity of the medical staff.
• Complete absence of the private sector’s role in the response.

The total number of patients who were received at the three hospitals of SEMA reached 291 patients over three months, 57 of them were in need of intensive care, while number of death cases among them was 7.

It is worth to note that all of the mentioned cases had symptoms that ranged between moderate to severe.

SEMA relentlessly tries to continue providing the needed support and ensure the maximum operation of these hospitals through communicating with international donors and partners. Indeed, SEMA could secure many of the needed equipment and supplies during the first and second weeks of November. However, there is still an urgent need which cannot be postponed and your support is what we count on to guarantee the continuity of work and treatment for all the new infected cases; these needs can be presented as the following:

• Providing a shipment of urgent medications to bridge the gap (30% of the needs, which are enough for the hospitals for two months, are for ICU drugs and 70% for other medicines).
• Providing the basic equipment required for the laboratories and intensive care (drug pumps, coagulation monitoring devices, 10 CPAP devices …etc.).
• Urgently securing the needed staff to meet the severe shortage in the human resources in the hospital.

Your support today will secure a continuous treatment for the patients and will save the lives of more infected people!

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