UK Deploys Medical Team To Boost Tunisia’s Fight Against COVID-19

Posted by Eric Ojo African News, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Around Africa, North Africa Sunday, August 15th, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The British Government has deployed a team of emergency medical experts to help Tunisia in tackling COVID-19 crisis more effectively.

The team which arrived the shores of the North African country on Friday, includes nine doctors, nurses and logistics experts, from the United Kingdom (UK), France, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Italy.

The medical experts specialise in emergency medicine and infection, prevention and control, as well as humanitarian healthcare. They will provide clinical supervision and support to Tunisian healthcare services and are expected to deploy for up to twelve weeks.

The decision to deploy experts from the UK’s Emergency Medical Team (UK EMT), supported by the UK-Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) was taken due to a request from the Tunisian Government.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 infections in Tunisia are rapidly increasing and the health crisis is exacerbating the economic crisis in the country. As the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths surged in Tunisia in July, hospitals and ICU beds across the country became full or were stretched to near maximum capacity.

This deployment, according to a statement distributed by APO Group on behalf of Government of UK, will provide British expertise to Tunisian health care professionals, helping helping them to tackle the health crisis and saving lives.

The UK-PHRST supports low-and middle-income countries in investigating and responding to disease outbreaks, and conducts research to improve our response to future epidemics. In this deployment, a UK-PHRST infection, prevention and control (IPC) specialist will work alongside the EMT staff, training health professionals in IPC management.

UK Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, James Cleverly said COVID-19 has delivered major blows to the Tunisian health system and economy, with the number of daily cases of real concern.

Similarly, UK EMT Interim Team Lead and British Emergency Department Consultant, Paul Ransom noted that the team is delighted about their deployment to support Tunisia’s response to the pandemic.

“As members of UK- Med and the UK- Emergency Medical Team, we are proud to be in Tunisia to assist the Tunisian people in their response to COVID-19.

“We will be helping the national teams to provide hands-on care to patients, carrying out specialist training and giving support to our Tunisian colleagues in the demanding and vital work they carry out every day in combating COVID-19”, he stressed.