Rataban-Mabin district, 2 March 2022 – When Bushra was eight months old, her body grew more frail by the day and she developed diarrhea and a fever for more than a week. Her mother said: “I refused to transfer her to the city, not because I don’t love my child, but because we don’t have the cost of treatment and medicine. We were watching her dying for three painful days, after we learned from our village doctor that there is a health facility which offered free treatment. We rushed to the hospital hoping it wasn’t too late for my daughter.”

Bushra arrived at the therapeutic feeding center in a critical condition. The medical team immediately took her to the emergency management unit to stabilize her in line with the WHO protocol.

Dr Adel al-Abdeli, a paediatric specialist, was responsible for Bushra’s emergency care and assessment on his daily rounds. After four days of close monitoring and treatment, Bushra’s condition improved significantly. After recovery, she was referred to the outpatient clinic to continue her nutritional treatment and monitor her weight towards making a full recovery.

Bushra when she arrived at the Al-Jumhori Public Hospital therapeutic feeding center in Hajjah being assessed by Dr Adel al-Abdeli, a paediatric specialist

Bushra’s mother was overjoyed by her daughter’s progress, and at the same time was able to benefit from educational sessions on personal hygiene and appropriate feeding practices for infants and young children.

Note: WHO through the Emergency Health and Nutrition Project (EHNP) and its successor the Emergency Human Capital Project (EHCP), both funded by the World Bank, supports 109 therapeutic feeding centres across Yemen, including the one at Al-Jumhori Public Hospital in Hajjah.

The training demonstrated to health workers how to correctly put on and remove personal protective equipment

Aden | Sana’a, 1 March 2022 – Over the past 2 years, communities everywhere have seen how quickly COVID-19 spreads. Even aside from the pandemic, in low- and middle-income countries, an estimated one in 10 people who are hospitalized will acquire a health care-associated infection. While data on the prevalence of such infections caused by the COVID-19 virus is not yet available in Yemen, WHO and local authorities, with the support of the World Bank, are investing in strengthening knowledge, skills and capacities to prevent infections in health facilities.

Through the Yemen COVID-19 Response Project, 87 training sessions have been held, targeting 3055 health care workers in 37 isolation units, supported by the Project across 14 governorates in Yemen.

The training aimed to enhance the knowledge of health workers and strengthen the implementation of protocols for infection prevention and control to provide a safe environment for health workers and patients. 

Hand hygiene practices were demonstrated to participants

Dr Hashim Abdullah Al Barawi, an intensive care nurse at Dhamar General Hospital, who participated in the training said, “The training was excellent. We used to misunderstand the safe usage of some of the medical equipment. The training cleared this confusion for us.” His colleague, Dr Faizah Al Riashi, Obstetric Emergency Supervisor, added “We do have backgrounds in some of the issues addressed through the training but practical demonstration was lacking which this training covered.”  

They also expressed a desire that such capacity-building activities would take place for as many health workers as possible in Yemen to improve their performance and keep them up to date on safe infection prevention and control practices. 

Note: The Yemen COVID-19 Response Project was launched in 2020 to detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and prevent the virus from spreading among the population of Yemen, through funding, supporting and strengthening the national health system in the country.

Related link

WHO health care-associated infections fact sheet 

“We had zero testing capacity, no one was trained, many health care workers neglected their role due to fear of COVID-19, but now with the support of WHO and the World Bank, all of us are trained and provided with lab equipment and supplies to help us minimize the spread of COVID-19 and revitalize Yemen’s destroyed health infrastructure,” Dr Mayada Gaafer, Deputy Head of Molecular Biology Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Aden

ADEN, 2 February 2022 – Dr Mayada is one of the first frontline health workers confronting the national laboratory response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Yemen. Despite a national shortage of health workers due to the fear and stigma surrounding COVID-19, Dr Mayada, unshaken, was one of the only laboratory workers at the central public health laboratory at Al-Jumhuriah Hospital, Aden.

The conflict in Yemen has had a catastrophic effect on the weak and struggling health system in the country. The rise of COVID-19 cases put an additional enormous strain on Yemen's public health system, putting the lives of millions at risk, as only half of the nation's health facilities are currently functioning.

The national laboratory at Al-Jumhuriah Hospital was looted and abandoned during the conflict, limiting the national testing capacity. Dr Mayada vividly remembers, "After the war, the lab was isolated, and in ruins, but now there is a glimmer of hope, and we started from zero".

To prevent a total collapse of Yemen's health system, WHO's Yemen COVID-19 Response Project, in partnership with the World Bank’s International Development Association, has supported the response of central public health laboratories to the COVID-19 pandemic. With this support, the laboratory located within Al-Jumhuriah Hospital in Aden is now one of the 15 functioning laboratories and hospital laboratories providing testing for COVID-19 in Yemen.

The project provided laboratory equipment for diagnostic testing, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) machines, PCR diagnostic kits for COVID-19, laboratory supplies, tubes, pipette tips, nasopharyngeal swabs, and ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction kits all of which are required to perform testing for COVID-19. In addition, the project facilitated the training for 75 health staff in all 6 central public health laboratories in Sana'a, Aden, Mukalla, Taiz, Sayoun and Hodeida on the technical procedures required to provide quality assured laboratory tests for COVID-19.

Through the generous support of the World Bank’s International Development Association, WHO's Yemen COVID-19 Response Project allows public health laboratories to take preventive measures to combat the widespread of COVID-19 cases. The laboratory support provided has increased diagnostic capabilities of the Ministry of Public Health and Population in Yemen and data generated from the laboratories enables new cases to be monitored to implement health measures to reduce further spread of the infection.

Dr Mayada says, “Without WHO and the World Bank, we wouldn't have been able to detect the COVID-19 virus in Yemen, I spent countless nights away from my family to bring the laboratory back to life."

The Ministry of Public Health and Population, alongside healt hcare professionals, have access to data that will assist them in managing and preventing the spread of COVID-19. They will now be able to implement preventive measures and protocols to secure the health and safety of the Yemeni population.