The fight to contain COVID-19 in Iraq
Baghdad, 1 April 2020 – Over the past few years, Iraq’s health system has faced many challenges, including internal conflict and the world’s biggest mass displacement in 2014-2016, all of which had a tough toll on an already fragile health system.
With the detection of COVID-19 in China in December 2019, WHO immediately set into preparedness gear, and arranged a series of technical meetings with emergency teams in both Central and Regional ministries of health to assess health facilities' resources and preparedness to respond to a potential importation of the disease.
The sudden eruption of the virus in neighboring Iran scaled up the risk of the disease spread in Iraq and necessitated faster prevention and infection control measures especially in the holy cities and pilgrimage sites, bordering governorates, and vulnerable communities in IDP and refugee camps.
“WHO is aware of the impact of a pandemic like COVID 19 on Iraq’s health sector and recovering services, ”said Dr Adham Ismail, WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Iraq. “We discussed with the health authorities in the Center and Kurdistan Region the means of urgent support to contain the transmission of the disease in the country. Joint work is underway and cooperation is at highest levels,” he added.
On 2 Feb, who proactively began strengthening national disease surveillance capacities in Iraq and providing case definition and management training, in addition to a large scale of risk communications activities.
Hundreds of thousands of prevention and transmission control messages were printed and provided to 20 directorates of health in the 18 governorates, including the Kurdistan Region governorates of Erbil, Dohuk, and Suleimaniya.
Mobile health teams took to main streets, public and religious places, remote cities and hard-to-reach villages in addition to airports, border points, state institutions, and camps hosting refugees and internally displaced population (IDPs).
Maha Salam and Najah Ahmed from Wasit DOH in Wasit Governorate eastern Iraq were among the mobile health team distributing WHO health messages to the public as early as 16 February.
Mobile health workers distributing WHO awareness messages to the public in one Iraqi governorate, Feb 2020. WHO Iraq.
Early mobilization campaigns to distribute WHO COVID-19 educational materials succeeded in raising public awareness and preparedness to protect individual health and that of the community in general.