Kang Seung-woo is the Business Desk editor at The Korea Times. Prior to this position, he covered politics, national affairs, finance and sports.
KOICA helps developing countries boost medical capabilities
A medical staffer in Cote d'Ivoir conducts a COVID-19 test from a diagnostic booth, which was donated by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). / Courtesy of KOICA
By Kang Seung-woo
By Kang Seung-woo
The COVID-19 pandemic has grown to affect nearly every country on Earth regardless of economic development status. As of Nov. 18, more than 55.3 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus around the world and more than 1.3 million have died from the disease, with the U.S. death toll surpassing 250,000.
The growing number of infections has prevented existing healthcare systems from dealing effectively with patients, and especially the damage was much more serious in developing countries, as evidenced by Indonesia and the Philippines, which are ranked first and second among Southeast Asian countries with their respective total cases topping 410,000. Infection surges in South American countries are also straining their healthcare systems.
In that respect, in line with Korea's successful handling of COVID-19 using advanced IT, such as drive-through and walk-through testing booths, the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is giving its full support to developing countries to build healthcare capabilities in preparation for the post-coronavirus era.
As part of the governmental Official Development Assistance (ODA) Korea's “Building TRUST initiative,” the state-run overseas aid agency has run its ABC program.
The ODA Korea aims to strengthen global “Transparency, Resilience, Unity and Safety Together” (TRUST) with partner countries to show Korea's commitment to global health and safety, while the ABC program aims at overcoming COVID-19 with mutual development cooperation. ABC means three directions ― Actions on Fragility (vaccine, diagnostics, treatment); Building Capacity (prevention, detection, rapid response, health system) and Comprehensive Cooperation (share lessons learned, global solidarity, innovative technology) ― which cover the period from 2020 until 2024 and are categorized as short-term (2020 to 2021) and medium-term (2022 to 2024) support.
KOICA President Lee Mi-kyung, center, poses with U.S. Ambassador to Korea Harry Harris, fourth from left, and other dignitaries during the International Symposium on Global Health Security Agenda hosted by KOICA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Seoul, Aug. 27, 2019. / Courtesy of KOICA
As a part of the program, KOICA donated 159 diagnostic booths branded with “K-walk-through” to 26 countries, while 127 locally developed negative-pressure patient carriers were given to six nations. In addition, it staged a webinar between Korea and Peru to help Peruvian medical staff improve their expertise in the virus, and a virtual conference with some ASEAN countries also took place, during which Korea shared its experiences and quarantine processes in tackling the pandemic. Plus, the agency launched the COVID-19 Information Hub site in May that provides quarantine-related data, examples, reports from governments and international organizations and media materials for effective response to COVID-19 around the world.
Even before the outbreak of the coronavirus, KOICA has made efforts to help developing countries elevate their healthcare capabilities, which are now paying off in hospitals treating virus patients and a program nurturing epidemiological investigators.
Fifteen KOICA-backed hospitals from 10 countries have been used as facilities treating those infected with COVID-19.
“KOICA has built hospitals and done business committed to improving medical staff in aid-receiving countries and those efforts have helped them handle the disease swiftly,” a KOICA official said.
Also, KOICA has helped Cambodia strengthen its infectious disease control capabilities since 2017, producing 69 epidemiological investigators who have played a key role in the Southeast Asian country's fight against the coronavirus. In fact, they conducted contact tracing of more than 2,000 people and found 27 infection cases.
Officials from KOICA and the Korea-Philippines Friendship Health Project Hospital pose after KOICA donated medical supplies for the fight against COVID-19, July 1. / Courtesy of KOICA
KOICA has launched another $8.5 million (9.4 million won) project, under which it plans to help reinforce the safety of Cambodia's biological laboratories, build an emergency response system for disease control and nurture infectious disease experts, including epidemiological investigators, by 2025.
This time, it is seeking to nurture at least one epidemiological investigator each for all 163 districts in the country's 25 provinces, according to the agency.
Since 2018, KOICA has run a $7.5 million project, in collaboration with the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to improve the health security capabilities of Ghana across three of the Global Health Security Agenda's action packages ― laboratory systems strengthening, workforce development and emergency preparedness.
Like the Cambodian cases, the Ghanaian project also produced 15 epidemiological investigators, who traced 4,523 cases and discovered 725 infections.
“Amid the second wave of the pandemic, KOICA plans to continually proceed with the aid program under the ODA Korea program to promote Korea's virus responses,” KOICA President Lee Mi-kyung said.