Since January, Dr Arifa Parker has served at the coalface of South Africa’s fight against Covid19. Biénne Huisman chats to her about what life is like in the eye of the storm.
When she gets home in the afternoon, physician Dr Arifa Parker disposes of her work clothes in the washing machine. She then has a thorough shower before greeting her three-year-old twin toddlers, Yusra and Haniya, with a hug.
“So that makes me feel better going home to my kids. I jump into the shower and wash my clothes before giving my little ones a hug. That is a bit odd because they usually would jump into my arms immediately when I get home.” “At the time it was quite overwhelming because ARVs were not freely available and a lot of young people were dying,” recalls Parker.
On January 11, Chinese state media reported the first known Covid-19-related death. Since then, Parker has “lived and breathed” Covid-19.“We heard about it mid-January and then we started having to prepare for cases, having to put procedures and systems in place. So as infectious diseases specialists, we’ve had to educate ourselves rapidly. We’ve had a steep learning curve and part of that has been adapting to create standard operating procedures for our hospital.
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