Surviving the Virus: An Iraqi doctor experienced life in quarantine as a virus patient and then stigma when she returned to her Karbala neighborhood. Her struggles lay bare Iraq's health system, battered by decades of war and neglect. By samya_kullab
This May 13, 2020, picture provided by Dr. Marwa al-Khafaji shows the doctor back at work after 20 days in isolation after she tested positive for the coronavirus at a hospital in Karbala, Iraq. Dr. Marwa al-Khafaji’s homecoming from a hospital isolation ward was tainted by spite. Someone had barricaded her family home’s gate with a concrete block. The message from the neighbors was clear: She had survived coronavirus, but the stigma of having had the disease would be a more pernicious fight.
Her struggles mirror those of Iraq’s battered health system, laid bare by the pandemic: Hospitals without supplies, medical staff intimidated by an unknown disease, and widespread stigma associated with infection. Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr blamed the spread on people who had symptoms or came from an affected country and “didn’t disclose these facts due to arrogance.”
At each hospital visit, Khafaji’s mother was afraid the neighbors would hear where she was. “I beg you. Take me home,” she said. On the first day, Khafaji’s mother looked at the squalid ward in disgust. “You have brought me to a prison,” she said.
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