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Qatar tribune
Catherine W Gichuki
Doha
A specialist paediatric surgeon at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has that he is grateful to Qatar government and healthcare system after he has recovered from the corona virus disease (COVID-19).
Dr Muthana al Salihi, an Iraqi national who has been working for HMC for the last 15 years and also covers paediatric surgery at Sidra Medicine is very appreciative of the care that he has received. 
Speaking to Qatar Tribune from a patient’s perspective Dr Al Salihi said, “I received the best care that maybe no one can receive from their own country. I am sure that many people cannot receive this kind of care even in their home countries. I am very grateful to the government, Ministry of Public Health and the heroes including the doctors, nurses and others who have had a really big impact on my recovery by eliminating the stress and giving me psychological reassurance.”
He said that Qatar was also doing a lot in contact tracing.
Narrating his journey Dr Al Salihi said that his condition started on April 12 with cold-like symptoms including back pains and sore throat. Three days later he lost his smell and taste sensations totally which made him to become worried.  It is after this he contacted his colleagues who are specialists in infectious diseases because he understood that loss of smell and taste was one of the symptoms of the COVID-19.  
He said that it is after that a swab which he waited for two days and it is after that he developed dry cough and some chest pains.  “They arranged for me to go to the HMC’s Communicable Disease Center (CDC) where my history was taken and swab taken. On April 19, an official from MoPH called to inform me that my test was positive and also enquired who I lived with.”
According to him, he was asked to isolate himself from the family. Dr Al Salihi said that all the people that he had contact with, were traced and tested but none of them tested positive for COVID-19.
He was admitted at CDC after some investigations it showed that he had pneumonia. “My condition was moderate. On the same night my treatment was started which was a medication including two antibiotics, two antiviral and antimalarial. I also had regular monitoring by nursing staff of my vitals such as oxygen saturation. After 5 days my condition started to improve.”
According to him the medicines were Azithromycin, Ceftriaxone, Hydroxy chloroquine, Tamiflu and Kaletra.
Dr Al Salihi said that as it is a protocol on the seventh day, they repeated the swab and both times it was negative. “If you have two negative swabs in a -24 hours gap, it means that you are cured.”
In total, Dr Al Salihi stayed in the hospital for nine days before he was discharged on medication for another few days. “I was asked to do self-isolation for another 14 days. That’s what I have done.”
According to him, a week after his quarantine, he didn’t have any more symptoms and returned back to normal.
Luckily no other member of the family tested positive for COVID-19. “Some co-workers were also swabbed and all of them were negative.”
Dr Al Salihi said that he doesn’t have any idea on where he contracted the disease from since he was not even in direct contract with a patient who he was aware that he/she had COVID-19. “I am calling it a “tricky virus” because you don’t know where you get it from. Eighty percent of people are asymptomatic or they have very mild symptoms. You also don’t know which pathway the disease will take where mild, moderate or severe.”
Dr Al Salihi advised people to follow the precautionary measure by the government to limit the spread of the virus. “My message to the public is that they should not be overworried about COVID-19 and at the same time we should not underestimate it. We should follow the government and the MoPH guidelines like wearing face masks, social distancing among others and stay at home as much as we can.”

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25/05/2020
10579