The cholera epidemic does not distinguish between doctors and patients in Yemen

Hafsa Opel - Sana'a

A hospital filled with many patients is a source of fear among those who enter it, where patients, especially children and women, doctors, consultants and nurses, and their intermingling and coexistence, suffer from transmission.

In the cholera control center, Dr. Ismail Mansouri works hard to save the life of a cholera child and, after taking long breaks, sat in front of a room full of children and left some women with the same disease.

Al-Mansouri himself knew that he was a "doctor specializing in acute water treatment" at Al-Sabein Hospital in Sana'a, which requires him to attend daily and at any time without interruption to the hospital to treat patients with cholera.

The death of a doctor
Mansouri tells the island the story of the late doctor Mohammed Abdul Wahid Abdul Mughni says that the late contributed to the treatment of thousands of cases, and training and guidance of health workers on the management of cholera cases, and was working non-stop in all sections and corridors crowded with patients.

He was born in Ab province. He studied human medicine in Syria and then returned to Yemen. He worked in Al Thawra hospital and has more than 35 years of experience. Since the onset of the cholera epidemic in 2015, Field of Internal Medicine.

Mansouri said the late doctor was living on the principle of "indifference" and relied on nothing to do except what God wrote to him without resorting to prevention. "The late man did not use medical gloves on an ongoing basis, so he was infected on 25 March and was treated In the hospital for one night only and then insisted on going home to empty his bed to another patient who is more deserving of it. "

Mansouri maintains his style of talking quietly about his colleague who was kidnapped by the epidemic, despite his deep sorrow and grief over the hospital's loss of a doctor who has enough experience to treat thousands of patients.

"Muhammad died on March 28 at his home, the news that surprised us all, that the same disease that took from his time and effort and health years, he took his life also."

Emergency
Sanaa has announced a state of emergency after the spread of cholera for the third time in Yemen since 2015, but all official bodies and organizations indicate that it is the strongest this year, where the Ministry of Health in Sana'a recorded the number of cases recorded at the level of the Secretariat of the capital since the beginning of this year with 37 thousand and 485 injuries , Including 50 deaths, including two doctors.

"We do not rule out the involvement of the forces of aggression (the Saudi-UAE alliance) in this, but the efforts of the Ministry of Health and the concerned parties," said Dr. Kamal Ahmed Abu Dunya, Director of the Ministry of Health in Sanaa. We do the necessary work, after the discovery that cholera bacteria acquired resistance to some types of antibiotics.

The World Health Organization estimates that some 4 million to 800,000 Yemenis are at risk of cholera, deepening the tragedy of Yemenis who are dying of starvation and hunger from both sides of the conflict.

Survive from death
"We were trying to fight cholera, but we won, and we will remain in this center no matter what, and to our late colleague, we decided to call him the center of Dr. Mohamed Abdel Moghny," Mansouri said in a crowded hospital corridor.

"We are continuing our work because there is a belief within us that we must fight this epidemic. I have been cholera myself three times, the last of which was two days ago, but I survived. The cholera came in this period very frighteningly. 200 to 250 cases or 300 within 24 hours, the government has been forced to open new centers to receive cases because of the large number of injured.

In response to a question by Al-Jazeera Net about the absence of some doctors from their work in some centers because of their fear of being infected, Al-Mansouri said that the medical staff at Al-Sabeen Hospital are determined to continue the Jihad. Jihad is no less than our Jihad in the field. Where he comes, a more dangerous enemy than the enemy of the fronts.

The reason for the big invasion of this epidemic is the general pollution, we can not find a specific reason, it may be African migration to Yemen or decomposing bodies is the cause, but there are no scientific studies confirm this.