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Feature Stories

Keeping displaced persons safe from COVID-19 in South Sudan

As the world’s youngest country readied measures to prevent widespread COVID-19 infections, its years of conflict and natural disasters suddenly presented an unparalleled challenge: protecting thousands of displaced persons from COVID-19 within the sites set up over the past decade as refuge.  

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Coping with mental health impact of COVID-19

Dan Bukenya felt beleaguered by anguish. He lost sleep most nights and was often testy. He tried to self-medicate to no avail. Only when he agreed to be treated at a hospital did he find relief. “They gave me medicines and I could finally sleep.”
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“It weighs you down,” Congo COVID-19 survivor recounts

Yaffa Fatoumata hoped that the fever and the sore throat she was suffering were just signs of a passing flu. However, when the symptoms persisted, the26-year-old legal assistant in Republic of the Congo’s Ministry of Communication decided to get tested for COVID-19. Two days after the test, her results turned out positive for the virus.
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Surviving COVID-19 and fighting stigma in Uganda

Kampala – When 30-year-old Ugandan entrepreneur Laura Nagasha returned from a holiday in Dubai in March, Uganda was yet to register any confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Dubai was not on the list of high-risk countries for the virus. Nagasha was tired from a busy trip and had developed a slight cough, but felt fine otherwise. After her arrival she decided to stay with friends for a while rather than returning straight home to her parents. 

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Overcoming COVID-19 at 99 years-old in Guinea

When Bagama Guehara walked out of Donka Hospital in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on 7 July this year, leaning on a walking stick for support, she was met with a rapturous applause from the medical staff and fellow patients.
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Combatting health worker infections in Nigeria

When Dr Mark Anthony makes his weekly rounds in Kaduna state, from public hospitals to private facilities, he is encouraged to see health workers protecting themselves, attending to patients with the right protective gear and performing the necessary hand hygiene. It gives him hope that the battle against COVID-19 will be won in his country.
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Zambia’s COVID-19 home-based care relieves health facilities

Shortly after Zambia reported its first cases of COVID-19 in March 2020, the country’s National Public Health Institute launched intensive, targeted screenings for cases in high-risk populations and locations. In Nakonde, a town on the border with Tanzania, the screenings revealed a huge number of infections.
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