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519“Flattening
the Curve” Through COVID-19 Contagion Containment
developed countries to immediately help less developed countries to
bolster their health systems and capacity to check disease, especially
COVID-19 transmission. Failure to do so, he warned, would contrib-
ute to “the nightmare of the disease spreading like wildfire in the
global South with millions of deaths and the prospect of the disease
re-emerging where it was previously suppressed.”
Weak Health Systems
Health systems in most developing countries are unevenly inad-
equate, even in normal times. Despite several pandemics in recent
years, most countries remained poorly prepared, let alone for the
specific challenges posed by COVID-19. Even most health systems in
Europe and North America faced major shortages of doctors, respira-
tors, basic infection prevention (BIP) gear, PPE, and testing kits.10
A recent survey of the availability of four BIP and four PPE
items in seven poor countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Democratic
Republic of Congo [DRC], Haiti, Nepal, Senegal and Tanzania) found
less than a third of clinics and health centres in Bangladesh, the DRC,
Nepal, and Tanzania had any face masks.11 In all seven countries, clin-
ics, and health centres, often the first point of public contact with the
health system, had, on average, just 2.3 (of four) BIP items and two
(of four) PPE items. Most countries surveyed scored poorly on health
workers’ preparedness in terms of the 2005 IHR to prevent the spread
of diseases.
online: United Nations <https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/
2020-03-31/transcript-of-un-secretary-general%E2%80%99s-virtual-press-
encounter-launch-the-report-the-socio-economic-impacts-of-covid-19>.
10. The WHO’s shortened list includes (a) guidelines for infection prevention; (b)
pourable water and soap or hand disinfectant; (c) surface disinfectant; and (d)
a waste bin. WHO’s guidance on PPE for those in direct contact with patients
includes: (a) gloves; (b) face masks; (c) gowns or aprons; and (d) eye protec-
tion. See “Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA)” (2015),
online (pdf): World Health Organization <https://www.who.int/healthinfo/sys-
tems/SARA_Reference_Manual_Chapter3.pdf?ua=1>; and “Rational Use of
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)”
(19 March 2020), online (pdf): World Health Organization <https://apps.who.
int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331498/WHO-2019-nCoV-IPCPPE_use-2020.2-
eng.pdf>.
11. Anna Gage & Sebastian Bauhoff, “Health Systems in Low-Income Countries
Will Struggle to Protect Health Workers from Covid-19” (2020), online: Center for
Global Development <https://www.cgdev.org/blog/health-systems-low-income-
countries-will-struggle-protect-health-workers-covid-19>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International