How COVID in India affects patients in Africa & Afghanistan

Huge numbers of Kenyans and many Nigerians depend on India to treat heart and kidney diseases. With travel restrictions to India, some ill Africans have been left stranded.

Imelda Wambua has chronic kidney failure and cannot afford the high cost of treatment in Kenya. Under normal circumstances, Wambua would quickly hop in a budget airliner and jet to India or have her medications delivered via express couriers. Now, none of that is possible.

"I was put on dialysis for about 18 months because my antibodies were too high. They needed to bring them down," Wambua told DW. "I was advised to get a transplant," she said. "The procedure that I needed, which is plasma exchange, cannot be done locally. So, going to India, at least, there was hope."

Wambua's hopes were dashed when Kenya and many other countries banned travel to India because of the rapidly rising figures in the country's second wave of the COVID pandemic.

'Beyond their management'

At its peak, India recorded about 400,000 new infections and 4,000 deaths per day. Although new figures indicate that its second wave is slowing down, many countries still ban travelers from India.

Kenyans are aghast as the pandemic claims many lives in a neighboring country across the Indian Ocean. Nigerians are watching the situation closely too.

"The doctors here would diagnose you with a particular disease, but when you go abroad, they will tell you something else," Aminu Bello, who lives in Nigeria, told DW. Like Wambua, Bello is also unable to fly to India for treatment for a medical condition he did not want to disclose.

"I am sure many people have lost their lives because of such negligence. We have lost confidence in the system," Bello added.

Many Nigerians as well as Kenyans go to India to treat "heart diseases, cancer, diseases of the kidney and diseases related to orthopedics and spine," according to Nigerian surgeon Dr. Mohammed Jamil.

"This COVID pandemic that is affecting the Indian system makes it very difficult for patients to travel to India. So, they must seek alternatives in other countries like in Turkey and Egypt. Others go to Europe to countries like Britain and Germany or The United States of America," Dr. Jamil told DW.

A continent and a sub-continent

India is among Africa's largest trading partners by gross national income and is Kenya's number one destination for medical tourists.

The weather on the Indian sub-continent is similar to that on the African continent. It's the same for living conditions, where people spend more time outdoors than indoors. Aerosol experts say transmission of the coronavirus occurs more frequently indoors than outdoors — the main reason why the Northern Hemisphere has been affected more so than the South.

Why COVID-19 in India is bad news for Afghan patients

The alarming surge of COVID cases in India has restricted medical treatment for Afghan citizens, who rely on the country's health facilities. For one Afghan patient, the stakes are getting higher with each passing day.

Sadruddin, a 70-year-old Afghan citizen, was leading a good life in Kabul until his health took a turn for the worse in 2016.

"My father started coughing incessantly at the beginning of 2016. The doctor in Kabul could not diagnose his disease," Maryam Beheshta, Sadruddin's 25-year-old daughter, told DW.

Sadruddin's health deteriorated in the following months, with Afghan doctors unable to treat him properly.

Public health facilities in the war-ravaged country are not adequate to treat people with chronic diseases, and for that reason, many Afghans travel to India. Beheshta, too, decided to take her father to India.

"I took my father to India in 2018 for the first time. The doctors there told me he had cancer," Beheshta said. "But there was hope; the medication and therapy that Indian doctors prescribed for my father was helping him," she added.

Start of the pandemic

After his diagnosis in India, Sadruddin and Beheshta traveled to India every three months for treatment, until the COVID pandemic hit the region in 2020. Lockdowns and international travel restrictions, imposed both by Indian and Afghan authorities, made it impossible for Sadruddin to receive the much-needed treatment for his ailment.

"The situation is now even more complicated because of the spike in virus cases in India," Beheshta said, referring to the deadly second COVID-19 wave in the South Asian country.

"Now, I cannot contact the Indian hospital where my father was previously getting treatment via video calls — something that we were able to do before the new wave."

"The hospitals in India are overwhelmed by local patients. I called the hospital many times but have not been able to talk to a doctor there to get the help we need."

Limited options

Although Afghanistan's public health system has improved in the past few years, the quality of services remains poor due to insufficient training of the medical staff, a lack of funds and medical equipment.

Many Afghans who suffer from cancer or other life-threatening diseases prefer to get treatment in either India, Iran or Pakistan.

India has become a preferred destination for many Afghans due to its relatively better public health infrastructure, lower costs and easy visa requirements. But Indian hospitals are currently overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients. In this situation, treating patients from neighboring countries is not a priority for them.

A catastrophe for Afghans

The Indian embassy in Kabul continues to issue visas to Afghan students, those in need of medical care and those traveling for business purposes, but the visa requirements have become stricter during the pandemic.

Afghan citizens are also afraid of going to India at a time when the virus spread is at its peak. For patients with chronic diseases, contracting the virus could be fatal.

Sadruddin and Beheshta must wait for things to improve in India, but unfortunately, they don't have much time.

"My father is coughing again all the time. We have run out of medicines that are available in India, and not in Afghanistan," Beheshta said.

Beheshta is consulting doctors in Kabul, but they don't have the facilities to treat her father's cancer.

"If travel restrictions are not lifted soon, and if India doesn't bring the virus under control, I am afraid my father's life will be at a greater risk," she said.

"My father has gone through a lot. We have spent a lot of money on India visits and his treatment," she said, adding that the pandemic in India has also proven to be a catastrophe for Afghans.