It's not just one or two countries we're talking about,
we're talking about millions and hundreds of millions of people.
So the scope to help is absolutely tremendous.
Healthcare workers around the world...
are battling to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
But those in under-resourced and war-torn countries...
such as Afghanistan face multiple challenges.
One charity is helping doctors in Afghanistan fight Covid-19.
Teleheal is an international telemedicine charity
through which medical specialists from the NHS in the UK,
rest of Europe, from America, from Canada and Australia,
they provide life-saving advice on smartphones
using encrypted social media to medics in conflict zones and low-resource countries.
Dr Waheed Arian is an emergency doctor for the NHS in England.
He and his colleagues have been working on the frontline...
since the pandemic began.
I founded Teleheal back in 2015,
to give back to Afghanistan, a country where I was born into war
and I spent the first 15 years of my life in conflict and in refugee camps.
So I had seen and I had experienced suffering.
People in low-resource countries, they still don't have access to medical specialists.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, in partnership with
the Ministry of Public Health, Afghanistan, we created a dedicated Covid-19 group
through which we've recruited up to 250 medical doctors
throughout Afghanistan, all provinces including Kabul.
They're talking with the medical specialists from the UK and the rest of the world.
They cover emergency medicine, intensive care,
acute medicine, as well as mental health.
And the system works on a 24/7 basis,
so it's live any time they have any questions, they can ask.
Our doctors in Afghanistan,
most of the doctors have not had the opportunity
to train or [access] resources because of war.
So this is very important, this Teleheal programme,
to support our doctors' training
and also upgrade their knowledge
and save the lives of many people inside Afghanistan.
Some doctors have no access to PPE, intensive care beds...
or ventilators, whilst others haven't been trained to use the equipment.
Facing a new disease such as Covid-19 is particularly hard.
Because Covid-19 is a new virus,
our doctors are not able to deal with the treatment of the coronavirus.
So the telemedicine Teleheal partnership is very
important for our country.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Teleheal volunteers have been...
giving advice in their spare time.
They advise on critical cases that need urgent, life-saving care.
Doctors also send the latest guidance based on...
World Health Organization guidelines.
And the charity provides live weekly tutorials.
I'll get pictures sent of ventilator settings
and waveforms and give advice on
optimising settings there.
I've been asked about medication
to treat Covid-19.
Dr Arshad advised Dr Hemat, an intensive care doctor in Kabul...
on a patient who had suspected Covid-19.
It was a patient who presented with shortness of breath, cough, fever, diarrhoea
and a loss of smell which are typical symptoms of Covid.
But they had a negative initial swab.
Their oxygen levels were very low and
Dr Hemat sent me over the observations,
how the patient felt,
the x-rays and blood investigations.
After 14 days she became worse, with dyspnoea [shortness of breath],
chest pain and some body pains.
We started treatment with close contact with them.
Very quickly the x-ray was looked at by one of
the consultant radiologists who was
part of the charity and the report was given.
I had a look through the blood investigations
and summarised them and offered suggested
management plan and advice around treatment.
Particularly around retesting for Covid
even though the first swab was negative
because there have been cases where the first swab has been negative
but then subsequent swabs come back positive.
After a few days the patient became healthy and discharged to go home.
Often reports on scans can take 24 hours to come back for Dr Hemat...
and his Kabul team, by which time the patient has deteriorated.
But doctors volunteering for Teleheal can reply within minutes.
It is a big problem in the diagnosis and treatment of
critical care illnesses.
If the treatment is started [as soon as possible]
the [outcome is better] than if it is started late.
The charity also provides mental health support for clinicians...
and their patients through live tutorials...
with psychiatrists and psychologists.
Covid-19 has also impacted the
mental health of almost everybody in the world.
Contributing factors include the unpredictability of the virus,
the compromises made with social contact,
the fear and the trauma of seeing loved ones die.
And in the case of healthcare workers, seeing their patients suffer and die.
So [these factors] have contributed to mental health issues such as
stress, anxiety, depression and PTSD.
And in the community, the issues that have
been created by this pandemic
include stigmatisation and discrimination of
patients suffering or suspected cases
of Covid-19,
domestic abuse as well as the uptake
of substances and alcohol.
The charity is also operating in Syria, Uganda and South Africa...
and is establishing partnerships in India and sub-Saharan Africa.
To create or replicate the system,
it doesn't require too much complex technology
or a lot of money but it does require
a lot of commitment, a lot of dedication
and a lot of compassion which our colleagues
have shown on both sides.
Being able to help our colleagues in
Afghanistan learn from our experiences
has been very rewarding.
I hope we keep their support with us,
it is very important for our patients.
Important innovation in conflict zones
and in low-resource countries
consists from simple technology,
combine that with the compassion and
solidarity of humans.
That they can stand side by side
[with] each other and they can solve a problem
that's continuously evolving
such as Covid-19.