THE CORONAVIRUS BLOCKS THE HEALTH MISSIONS OF GSI ITALIA

Two health missions were scheduled for February, now definitively postponed due to the worldwide alarm caused by Coronavirus, the first in Ethiopia, for a follow-up to the University of Gondar, of the “prevention and diagnosis of gynecological tumors” program. The second postponed mission is that in Somalia, where the doctors of the Massa Carrara Heart Hospital are operating with a pediatric heart disease screening program. Our pediatric cardiologist, Paolo Chiocchi, would attend this mission.

Both missions are currently postponed sine die, waiting that the virus lessens its virulence and is safely confined to the territory where first appeared on the world stage. Ethiopia represents one of the main potential entry ports of the virus into the African continent, due to the large Chinese community operating in the country of the Horn of Africa, used in the construction of the large dams on the Omo river and in the impressive glass and steel building that is transforming the face of Addis Ababa.