From the Civil Hospital to Tanzania to treat Covid

10/18/2020 Health, Italy



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In its whole pandemic there is a young doctor who chooses to get on a plane and go to Africa to treat those in need. Is called Chiara Bortoluzzi is 29 years old and for three years the doctor has a postgraduate degree at the Spedali Civili that is going to Tanzania with the organization Doctors with Africa CUAMM. The doctor is expected in the hospital of the city of Tosamaganga where he will work for six months in internal medicine department. The trip had been decided for some time, the doctor should have gone to Africa already in the first months of this year, then the health emergency upset the plans. However, their intention has always been the same.

“I thought well – says Chiara Bortoluzzi – on the fact that obviously the pandemic implies additional risks but, in Africa, risks are unfortunately on the agenda and that’s why I haven’t changed my plans. Covid or not Covid will be on its way to the African continent in the next few hours. Indeed, the fact of having come face to face with the consequences of the virus in the hospital, seems to have entailed an extra charge.

«The emergency that I experienced in Brescia in the Covid department of Spedali Civili forced us to change the our approach to patients – Chiara continues -. There were many patients and, although we are used to having all the means available to treat them, we had to choose more carefully how to use resources: something that has never happened to me or my colleagues ”. For the young doctor, originally from the province of Treviso, the experience of the darkest months of the pandemic in Italy is luggage that she will carry all her life. I think it is also these experiences that make us more aware of our limitations and of the importance of caring for those in need. In Tanzania, fearing contagion, more and more people are staying away from hospitals and this means that many women risk their lives giving birth at home or children are not vaccinated. In Africa, the student will be responsible for monitoring inpatients and outpatients. “I am very curious – he continues – I hope that this experience will positively influence my way of practicing even when I am back in Italy, making me look at patients from new points of view”.