A mural in Senegal of a woman blowing her nose

Regardless of only owning 7 health professionals for each individual 100,000 people, Senegal has been commonly praised for its dealing with of the coronavirus pandemic. The BBC’s Mayeni Jones and Naomi Scherbel-Ball search at how the country has managed to hold Covid-19 in verify.

“When the 1st case came, we had been extremely nervous and I was offended simply because it was an imported case,” claims Dr Khardiata Diallo, who co-ordinates the epidemic treatment method centre at Fann Medical center in the cash, Dakar.

“We fearful that we lacked machines, for the remedy of coronavirus there were being just 12 beds with minimal oxygen materials for the whole region.”

Medics at Fann Hospital are now able to keep an eye on sufferers using cameras as a way of minimising get in touch with

That was in late February when a Frenchman experienced returned to Dakar from a skiing getaway with a fever, sore throat and headache.

He was Senegal’s 1st situation of Covid-19, the second claimed case in sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Diallo, who was component of the crew that dealt with the country’s single Ebola scenario during the West African outbreak of 2014 as properly as other cholera outbreaks more than the past 15 a long time, knew they required to act quickly to have the pandemic.

Totally free 24-hour tests

Her colleagues at the prestigious Institut Pasteur in the Dakar, which in February was just one of just two laboratories in Africa that ended up capable to check for coronavirus, properly trained workers from dozens of other countries on how to check.

Ibrahima Diop, who functions in a phone centre, was very first diagnosed and dealt with for malaria when he caught Covid-19 in April

By April, 43 countries on the African continent ended up in a position to diagnose Covid-19 successfully.

Nowadays the lab in Dakar’s central Plateau district has a 24-hour operation and tests has been expanded across the state.

Tests for people with indications are totally free and benefits are introduced in 8 hrs.

It is compulsory for men and women to use masks in Dakar

Although there have been worries above very low tests rates throughout the continent, the Africa Centre for Illness Management is supporting nations around the world to ramp up screening degrees and there are hopes that low-cost self-tests diagnostic kits could assist that effort and hard work.

The Institut Pasteur has been vital to this hard work, with its main virologist Amadou Sall partnering with United kingdom-primarily based organization Mologic to acquire two home take a look at kits:

Tale proceeds

One to examination if anyone at present has the virus, identical to the at present applied lab-dependent PCR swab checks

The other to examine if an individual has developed antibodies for coronavirus from a previous an infection

Dr Sall states the producing of the antibody check has now begun and they need to be produced in the coming weeks.

It will perform like a pregnancy take a look at, costing shut to $1 (£.80) with final results in just 10 minutes.

The household check that will show if an individual at this time has coronavirus has been delayed and is now remaining validated by the Liverpool College of Tropical Medicine, but there are hopes it will still be out prior to the conclude of the calendar year.

Greater degrees of screening really should also support with early prognosis.

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Ibrahima Diop, a 29-year-old telemarketer in Dakar, fell ill in April and was at first taken care of for malaria.

It was only at the insistence of his mother, who labored at a healthcare facility, that he was analyzed and identified with coronavirus – together with 60 of his call centre colleagues.

He was swiftly handled and introduced from clinic inside a 7 days – his scenario confirmed the require for individuals to request exams in a state where by signs and symptoms can quickly be bewildered with malaria, a thing the authorities have emphasised through their day by day morning televised coronavirus briefings.

Singing to defeat the virus

A world Covid-19 reaction index by International Policy magazine gave Senegal the maximum doable score for its interaction technique – and best musicians also joined the exertion to notify people today.

In April they clubbed alongside one another to release Daan Corona, indicating “Defeat coronavirus” in the local Wolof language.

The song features well-known Senegalese musician Youssou Ndour calling on people today to continue to be at property and wash their fingers.

https://www.youtube.com/check out?v=qwT19-up78M

There are also colourful murals on the partitions of Senegal’s oldest university calling on pupils to share the ideal coronavirus prevention approaches with their classmates, instead than sharing coronavirus.

Murals in Dakar show men and women solutions to end the spread of coronavirus

Throughout the street, you can see the blue basins that have been set up for handwashing in some community places.

In the early times of the pandemic, preventive measures had been put in location such as a state of emergency, entire university closure and a night-time curfew

Places to eat, supermarkets and banking companies had been brief to introduce temperature checks at their entrances.

Public wash basins can be witnessed in Dakar to inspire individuals to wash their hands

Whilst that’s now mainly been relaxed, on Dakar’s streets confront masks are nonetheless compulsory, a rule that was released as early as April.

Nowadays all of Senegal’s 14 regions are outfitted to take care of coronavirus clients and there are now just 26 sufferers remaining on ventilators throughout Senegal.

Banner impression looking through ‘more about coronavirus’Banner

In the acute coronavirus ward at Dakar’s Fann hospital, Dr Oumar Kane monitors his last coronavirus patient dependent on a ventilator.

The 58-calendar year-aged has been addressed there for just about a week – he is diabetic.

To minimise call, cameras from the ward connection up to a tv display exterior.

The well-liked Muslim Mouride brotherhood is encouraging persons to don masks

But back again in March, when conditions in Senegal to start with started to rise, Dr Kane remembers a very diverse condition.

“The trouble was we only experienced 10 beds with ventilators and there were being times when there was pressure on the listing, which meant that we would receive calls asking for a mattress and we couldn’t receive the patient.

“That need ongoing for all-around 3 months, right until other hospitals had been outfitted.”

The variety of recorded each day conditions has been broadly reducing since mid-August. recorded

Senegal, which has a inhabitants of 16 million, has only experienced 15,000 positive circumstances and just more than 300 deaths.

Its approach for made up of the virus has adapted and quite a few clients with delicate indicators are now addressed at house, with clinic employees monitoring their affliction remotely and delivering drugs.

Muslim pilgrimage problem

When global flights re-opened in July, there had been concerns that there would be a spike in situations.

Senegal, like a lot of other African international locations, has asked website visitors to make a detrimental Covid-19 certification, dated no additional than a week before travel.

There are typically substantial crowds at the tomb of the Mouride brotherhood founder in the course of the Grand Magal pilgrimage

On arrival passengers have their temperature taken. So significantly, these actions appear to have labored, with minimal stages of imported conditions.

This 7 days 4 million individuals are expected to go to the country’s most significant yearly pageant, the Grand Magal of Touba.

It is a historic pilgrimage to Touba, which is 190km (120 miles) east of Dakar and is the spiritual dwelling of the Muslim Mouride brotherhood.

The pilgrims queue for hours on the city’s streets to get to the Grand Mosque and to a mausoleum of the brotherhood’s founder.

While posters close to the money clearly show the leader of the group contacting on followers to use face masks, gathering this kind of a massive variety of worshippers in a single place will be a crucial check as the state seeks to sustain the development produced so much.



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