Médecins Sans Frontières - Aden, a hotspot of COVID-19 in Yemen FR

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF320735

Date taken / Date Recorded 29/05/2020 12:00 AM

Country Yemen

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Aurelie Baumel

Copyright Aurelie Baumel/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★★ (E)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m7s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 211.74 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist Aden: COVID-19 hotspot in Yemen

Thierry Durand
Project coordinator

He arrived, was given oxygen, and four hours later he was dead. We have a lot of people like this, that die quickly, that deteriorate very quickly.

MSF opened Aden’s only COVID-19 treatment centre at the beginning of May, at al-Amal hospital.

All those who die, die in 24 to 48 hours.

People accept deaths but they don’t understand why or how people are dying so quickly. We had families outside, patients within. They were exchanging text messages and then for an hour no more messages. The nurse left the centre and told the family that Mohammed had died. “OK, but just one hour earlier we were exchanging messages and now you are telling me he’s dead. What did you do? You have messed up, you neglected him, you cut the oxygen? It’s not possible.” Sometimes, that ended up being a bit tense. The nurse was slapped by this family. So, there is an incomprehension of that ultra-quick deterioration of certain cases, people who were able to walk in – although certainly breathless and hypoxic – and a few hours later, boom, they are dead. And for the healthcare staff, us and our Yemeni colleagues, that is very difficult because we do not have a lot of means to treat the people apart from giving them oxygen.
228 patients were admitted to the MSF COVID-19 treatment centre, from which 99 deaths, between April 30 and May 23

The logistics of delivering oxygen are absolutely scary now and it is only getting more demanding. We are moving past 200 cylinders [of 40 litres] per day. In a country like Yemen it is very complex. There is no centralised oxygen, no liquid oxygen.

We had days when 10, 11, 13 people died in a single day at al-Amal.

We feel helpless when seeing people that are dying just one after the other.

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