In Iraq, coronavirus terrifies even doctors hardened by conflict

Through decades of conflict, Dr Haidar Hantoush has watched wounded soldiers and civilians flood into Iraq's emergency wards. But he's never been so scared.

"Today, the issue is a different one, we are dealing with an epidemic," he said.

Doctors and nurses across Iraq have treated hundreds of thousands of victims during decades of civil war, violence and sanctions, while watching what was once one of the best healthcare systems in the Middle East crumble.

Now, they say Iraq may be singularly unprepared for the coronavirus.

Iraq has a porous border with Iran, the worst-hit Middle Eastern country so far. The Iraqi religious calendar is dotted with annual pilgrimages, some of the biggest mass gatherings on earth, which typically attract millions of worshippers.

And since last year, Iraq's major cities have seen mass anti-government demonstrations that killed hundreds of people. State institutions are paralysed by political deadlock after the government resigned and politicians failed to form a new one.

So far, Iraq has counted more than 450 coronavirus cases and 40 deaths, most of them in the past week. But doctors worry that those figures barely scratch the surface of an epidemic that may already be raging undetected across crowded cities.

Loudspeakers on mosques in Baghdad blast out government guidelines daily urging people to stay at home and get tested if they think they are ill. A curfew is in place until April 11. Borders are shut and international flights halted.

But getting the message across is difficult in a country with deep distrust of the authorities. Tribes have sometimes refused to allow women with symptoms to be isolated because they do not want them to be alone in hospitals, Hantoush, speaking to Reuters via Skype from the city of Dhi Qar on Friday (March 27), said.

Thousands of Iraqis participated in the most recent of Iraq's major pilgrimages, to the shrine of a Shi'ite Imam in Baghdad, where they crowded in defiance of the curfew.

The United Nations praised Iraq's early measures in closing borders last month but has urged respect for the curfew.

One Baghdad doctor, requesting anonymity because the ministry forbade medical staff from speaking to media, said a sharp rise in cases is imminent. "We're bracing for what happens in the next two weeks. And we can't cope," he said.

 

 

REUTERS

To watch the full report about Coronavirus around the world, please click on the video above.