In the midst of the third wave of Covid in Afghanistan and despite appeals for reason from the authorities, Afghans experienced in difficult times after 40 years of conflict continue to ignore the virus. Out of shame, out of embarrassment. Right to the doors of the hospitals.
On his bed in the emergency room of Muhammad Ali Jinnah Hospital, one of Kabul’s three main public establishments, Said Ali Shah is barely audible through the oxygen mask plastered to his face.
Just able to sit up after four days of intensive care, the fifty-something brought here “breathless” by his wife, he says, fiercely denies the reality of his condition.
“No no no … I don’t have the corona myself!”.
In withdrawal, the director of the hospital looks up: “Of course it is. He has tested positive but we avoid telling patients who arrive in this unit … Otherwise they think they are going to die and lose all hope, ”says Dr Sayed Amiri, director of this 200-bed establishment.
The situation is however serious: “In one week, we recorded an increase of nearly 200% of cases”, according to the Minister of Health, Wahid Majrooh. Its main concern is the lack of oxygen in a health system “on the brink”, already weakened by war and insecurity.
“The next four weeks will be difficult, we must prepare for the worst,” he insisted, desperately calling on the Afghans to reason. “Many continue to ignore the danger: you see people without masks in front of hospitals, accompanying their loved ones in critical condition.”
In front of Ali Jinnah hospital, a nurse offers antigenic tests in 15 minutes and free masks to those accompanying patients who often stay asleep nearby. “But most refuse,” continues the director. “It’s hard to change habits” …
– “A form of shame” –
At the “Afghan-Japan” hospital for infectious diseases, the country’s main Covid center, Dr Tareq Akbari makes the same observation: “People prefer to stay at home and self-medicate without being tested”.
For the director of this 120-bed facility (built by Japan in 2006), “a form of shame” remains attached to the Covid – and a death sentence at the idea of being hospitalized.
“They arrive here much too late, when they breathe too badly. We see families of which three, four members are infected.”
His establishment receives patients from all over the country, who arrive on their own, at the risk of spreading the virus on the way.
He also worries: “Even though we have little means of verifying it, we know that it is the Indian variant (now called delta) that is circulating in the country. There is a lot of trade between the two countries. And the patients are now younger than in the first two waves, “says Dr. Akbari.
For him – and the minister agrees – the official figures which announce 55 to 60 daily deaths for a week are largely underestimated. “You can easily multiply by two or three”. And even more: who keeps the accounts in rural districts, sometimes in the throes of fighting or already under Taliban control.
According to the Minister of Health, Afghanistan lost 110 doctors to Covid during the year.
But the authorities’ warnings remain ignored by the population who have already shunned the vaccination campaign in May, during the month of Ramadan: the most rigorous believed that the injection would make them break their fast. Then the celebrations of Aid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month, gave rise to many family gatherings – and so many opportunities to share the virus. Hence the current outbreak.
Less than a million doses were given as a first injection, according to the ministry, which expects 700,000 more at the end of the week, offered by China.
The UN also announced Thursday the delivery of ten oxygen production stations to be installed in the country.
But the United States, which is accelerating the withdrawal of its troops after 20 years of presence, has already called on its nationals to leave the country as soon as possible, arguing that some of them have been refused l ‘access to hospitals due to lack of equipment.
ah-us-mam / ahe
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