Paris, Aug. 15 (Nouvelle Solidarité) – On Aug. 4, reporting via the French-language BBC Africa, Awa Cheikh Faye details the health situation in Senegal. The country is hard hit by the third wave of Covid. The situation increasingly resembles that of Peru, where the scarce health system is unable to take care of the rising number of cases.
“‘We’ve been looking everywhere for oxygen,’ says one patient. ‘Thank God a young Red Cross doctor attached to Cheikh Anta Diop University had a bottle. He oxygenated me and injected me with antibiotics. At 5:30 p.m., by chance, a place became available and I was hospitalized for a week,’ she said. ‘I was discharged to continue the treatment at home as I can breathe without oxygen and it allows a bed to be freed for people who need it more.’”
Since the beginning of July, the number of Covid cases, particularly in the Dakar region, has increased rapidly. This third wave is causing an oxygen shortage and bringing the challenge of mass vaccination back to the forefront. The analysis of samples shows a presence of the highly contagious delta variant of about 70 %, said the president of the National Committee for Epidemic Management Dr. Marie Khémess Ngom Ndiaye, last week. Hospitals in the capital Dakar, in particular, are “close to saturation” and the staff “in burnout,” warned last week the national director of public health institutions, Ousmane Dia.
The same is true of the Epidemic Treatment Center (CTE) at Fann Hospital, where, the beds equipped with oxygen are all occupied. Cases of Covid-19 jumped from a few dozen per day at the end of June to 1,700 in July. In Dakar, all the epidemic treatment centers are full, says Dr. Khardiata Diallo of the CTE. “In the emergency room, we are sometimes so overwhelmed that some patients are sitting on chairs where they are oxygenated while they call the SAMU (Emergency Medical Service) to see if there is room elsewhere. There were patients sitting on chairs with bottles, others lying on the floor for lack of space, but who refused to go home. We are tired, physically, morally, we are on the verge of burnout. It will soon be two years…. What we are going through right now, we have never seen it. Everyone is tired, the medical and paramedical staff, everyone is tired,” said Dr. Diallo.
The active search for oxygen is no longer limited to the corridors of hospitals, clinics and health centers, but has become the business of every man and woman in Senegal. Many clinics do not have an oxygen plant and have to obtain their supplies mainly from two local producing companies. For a tank of oxygen, it costs 55,000 CFA francs, not counting the medication and other costs related to hospitalization. “There is only oxygen in the CTE. If I take the example of the health center of Keur Massar, there is no oxygen. When we receive patients at the clinic, we are obliged to manage the emergency, the time to launch the search for a place to refer them. But the problem is that in the Covid-19 buffer zone of Keur Massar, there is no oxygen,” said Dr. Djiba Ramos.
