Somalia Needed a Diagnostic Lab, So These Doctors Built One

ADF STAFF

When Dr. Abdullahi Sheikdon Dini and his partners decided to open Mogadishu’s only diagnostic laboratory, they were focused on testing for measles and other diseases. Then COVID-19 arrived.

Along with four other doctors, Dini compiled $1 million to finance Medipark Diagnostics to provide advanced diagnostic testing and support Somalia’s teetering health care system.

The lab opened in January. Two months later, on March 16, a Somali doctor returning from China became Somalia’s “patient zero” for COVID-19. At the time, that diagnosis came from a lab in Kenya.

Since then, Somalia has reported 4,301 cases and 107 deaths from the respiratory disease as of November 16, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Stigma associated with the disease means the country might have many more unreported cases because people avoid getting help.

Dini said his group built a diagnostic lab to help the country respond better to the disease.

“We saw there was a dire need for a lab in Somalia because tests were sent to labs abroad,” Dini told Reuters. “We proposed and established this lab instead of opening a hospital.”

Until Medipark Diagnostics opened, Somali doctors had to wait weeks for test results. Today, hospitals in Mogadishu can get answers in hours or days.

That quicker turnaround has made a big difference as the Somali government works to rein in the spread of COVID-19.

For the first half of 2020, Medipark was the only private lab testing for COVID-19. Since July, Dini’s staff has trained other scientists in the procedure, expanding the country’s ability to respond to the disease.

“We had the supplies, and our molecular pathologists were in touch with other pathologists doing COVID-19 tests in other countries,” Dini told Reuters. “We were needed, and we were appreciated.”

Also in July, the African Development Bank approved $25 million in grants to help Somalia buttress its health care system in response to COVID-19.

Medipark became a key component of that response, which largely was carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Dr. Sahra Isse Mohamed, director of the National Public Health Reference Laboratory.

“When I saw how quickly COVID-19 was spreading, I thought Somalis would be in trouble,” Sahra said during a visit by WHO representatives. “Other countries were beginning to go into lockdown everywhere, and we had no capacity or skills to test patients for the virus.”

Within three weeks of the first reported COVID-19 case, Medipark Diagnostics had teamed up with national and international resources to build up Somalia’s own ability to test for the virus, Sahra said.

Through its own international connections — Dini studied in India and China — Medipark has established routes for importing the materials needed to conduct COVID-19 testing. Its international staff, many of them women, includes members from India, Kenya and Lebanon.

Dr. Ali Musa, Medipark’s chairman and one of the five doctors who set up the lab, returned to Somalia to help create it after practicing in Rwanda and South Sudan.

“I am glad to help my community and make a difference,” he said.