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EERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Zahra Hussein is 49 years old. She been diagnosed with colon cancer.
She is the sixteenth patient of twenty-two to recover from coronavirus at the Peshmerga Hospital in Erbil.
She was in Iran for cancer treatment when she contracted the novel coronavirus.
“I have been here for 35 days. I was vomiting a lot when I had laser treatment in Iran. I was exhausted from the laser therapy. I had no energy, but thank God, I became well in this place. I am grateful for their help,” says Zahra.
Dr. Haval Faris, the Peshmerga Hospital's director, told Rudaw: "We were testing her every six hours. We needed to know all the vital signs, so if anything happened we would be able to treat her as soon as possible. Because she had received chemotherapy, her immunity was very low."
Dr. Basak Barzinji, an oncologist working at the facility, says that cancer patients are at higher risk for health complications when contracting viruses like COVID-19.
"We have some patients that receive chemotherapy. They face more risks, because their immune system is weakened. So these patients should be more watchful of their health when they are receiving therapy. Diagnosing them earlier and treating them quicker is very helpful toward their recovery," he says.
Erbil’s Peshmerga Hospital was built for $4.8 million with assistance from the German government. It was originally designed to treat Peshmerga soldiers wounded in combat.
But with the threat of coronavirus taking over the Kurdistan Region, the facility expanded its services to treat patients with COVID-19 since the outbreak.
Reporting by Hadi Salimi
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