Specialized Covid-19 training for healthcare personnel was launched by the Covid-19 Laboratory.   Four beds were set up for sub-intensive care and personal protective equipment was donated. The Emergency project launched in March 2020 is managed directly by MAGIS, the missionary work of the Jesuit Euro-Mediterranean Province, and funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.

The Jesuit hospital

This missionary work of MAGIS in Chad at the Le Bon Samaritain Hospital, the only hospital in the world belonging to the Society of Jesus, was founded by Fr. Angelo Gherardi, an Italian Jesuit missionary who spent over 50 years in Chad.  It is being supported by the great generosity of private donors, who for years have sustained the hospital with the purchase of medicine to make it possible for the most vulnerable people to have access to medical care.

Moreover, thanks to the special call raised by the Office for Charitable Interventions of the Italian Bishops' Conference in favour of the Third World, through funds granted to the Catholic Church, it was possible to supply the hospital's medical staff with personal protective equipment.

To train health professionals to deal with the crisis, prof. Vittorio Colizzi, university professor of immunology and pathology, specializing in infectious diseases and public health hygiene, director of biotechnology at Unesco and director of bioethics at the University of Roma Tre, and an expert in African health for over 20 years, has given his professional contribution by opting to work together with specialists from Cameroon.

Collaboration with the Ministry of Health

Given the presence of MAGIS, the Chadian Ministry of Health has asked for support in the training of nurses and students and proposed to carry out a surveillance to study the real spread of the virus. In fact, to date, data from the World Health Organization shows that the situation is under control for now: Chad is the 162nd most infected country in the world with 1437 cases, 96 deaths, 73 active cases and has an 88.2% rate of cure.

Other diseases

The focus on Covid19 has diverted assistance and support from the research of the cure of other diseases that continue to cause thousands of deaths every year, primary among these diseases are malaria, hepatitis, and polio. The Magis laboratory, besides testing for Covid, will be of much greater benefit as a research and analysis centre for tropical diseases that continue to take the lives of victims. The way forward is that besides responding to the pandemic emergency, this laboratory should go beyond and continue to give all the necessary support as it has done over the years.

"There are no boundaries" Sabrina Atturo, one of the members of the Magis service project for Chad highlights, "the only weapon to combat disease is solidarity without limits and barriers. We can only respond to the global spread of disease with an equally global solidarity!"