MOGADISHU, Somalia – The Federal Republic of Somalia should use debt relief to repair dilapidated health infrastructure, suggests a report compiled by Amnesty International, as the country now struggles to contain the Covid-19 situation.
The report was titled ‘We Just Watched Covid-19 Patients Die’ – Covid-19 Exposed Somalia’s Weak Health System, But Debt Relief Can Transform It, Shows How Covid-19 Revealed a series of pre-existing weaknesses in Somalia’s health system.
At least more than 40 people were interviewed, including 33 health and humanitarian workers, government officials, finance and debt relief experts, as well as an analysis of government budgets and policies and comments from the government. Somalia Ministry of Finance.
The Somali government’s response to the pandemic has been grossly inadequate, the report notes, confirming fears that the actual number of infections and deaths may be higher than what the health ministry has released.
Research reveals that access to healthcare facilities for Covid-19 patients has been severely limited with a single hospital in the capital Mogadishu handling all Covid-19-related cases in the south-central region during the first wave infections.
“The Somali government’s response to the pandemic has been grossly inadequate – characterized by a dire lack of ventilators, severe oxygen shortages and almost non-existent access to ambulance services, all of which are the result of years of neglect and failure to invest in health care. said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
“Now that Somalia is eligible for debt relief, authorities must ensure that sufficient revenue and future grants are used to invest significantly in improving health care, both in rural and urban areas. ”
With a history of armed conflict and political instability while being one of the most indebted countries in the world, Somalia lags on many health indicators, including access to reproductive, maternal health care. and infantile. Infant mortality is currently the highest in the world. In 2017, there was a ratio of one surgeon per 1,000,000 people. It is estimated that only 15 percent of people have access to medical care in rural areas.
Amnesty International’s analysis of the country’s government budgets between 2017 and 2021 showed that the average budget allocated to health and health-related projects was only 2%. During the same period, the average budget allocated to the security sector, including the ministries of defense and internal security, was 31% of the total government budget.
Officially, there have been 15,294 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 798 confirmed deaths, but the actual numbers are likely much higher given limited testing capacity and weaknesses in reporting and recording deaths.
This is confirmed by the country’s chief medical officer Dr Mohamed Mohamud Ali, who told Amnesty International he believes the death toll from Covid-19 is much higher than expected.
“The tests were very limited. Only those who made it to health facilities and were tested are included in official government data. The figure is only the tip of the iceberg, many more have been infected and died at home, ”he said.
Amnesty medical staff spoke to reveal how the country struggled from day one with its healthcare response during the pandemic. A nurse told Amnesty International: “We rushed at the start. Everything was a mess. We had nothing to treat the patients. There was no oxygen, no intensive care beds and ventilators. We just saw patients die, it was really sad.
A senior doctor said that many Covid-19 positive patients have also died due to insufficient oxygen supply: “We had to use a single nasal oxygen cannula for several patients. There was one day when we had four old men in a room, they all needed oxygen, but they were all dead within 10 minutes. I still remember their faces; I’m sad we couldn’t get oxygen to save their lives.
Commenting on the shortages encountered in the first weeks of March 2020, a laboratory specialist from the Ministry of Health told Amnesty International: “We had no testing equipment for a few weeks … We were initially sending samples to Kenya for testing until we received the first PCR machine through a donation from the Chinese company Alibaba. ”
AXADLETM
