July 2020. After the coronavirus hit this country of 39 million, doctors began receiving a torrent of abuse from families of COVID-19 patients, escalating the already high scale of violence in Iraq. The pandemic has further revealed the fragility of Iraq’s health system. Health authorities announced the first coronavirus case in February, in a patient who traveled from Iran to study in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf. It quickly spread across the country. Inadequate measures from the government, corruption and a lack of medicines added to the struggle of health care workers seeking to deal with the virus. “Violence against us is not a new challenge, but when COVID-19 virally spread across the country, violence doubled,” said Dr. Saif al-Madhloom, 28, who works at the Al-Dayer primary health care center in Basra province. Many people, particularly those who are living in conservative and religious areas, believe that the virus is a political game or a hoax and they ignored World Health Organization advice for social distancing, hand washing, the wearing of face masks and the avoidance of gatherings. “About 90% of patients who visited hospitals and health care centers denied the existence of COVID-19 and assumed that it was a political conspiracy. Therefore, lots of patients refused to be tested for COVID-19, claiming that they had acquired a cold,” Madhloom added. “Our hospitals lack any kind of safety measures; there are shortages of medications and medical appliances.”
Jul 2020. Iraq and Coronavirus
