Pakistan’s Fragile Health System Faces a Viral Catastrophe
Doctors and paramedics protest the unavailability of safety equipment in Quetta, Pakistan, on April 6.
Photographer: Banaras Khan/AFP/Getty Images
Syed Mohammad Yahya Jafri, 22, a Pakistani student from Karachi, was coming to the end of a two-week pilgrimage to Iran when his head started spinning. He felt weak and feverish but decided the best thing to do was head home. It was mid-February, and most countries weren’t yet blocking people with flu-like symptoms from traveling.
No one stopped Jafri at the airport in Tehran when he arrived for his Iran Air flight, or on landing in Karachi. He went about his routine there, encouraged that his symptoms seemed to be intermittent. But when they became constant, along with a nagging cough, Jafri went to a local hospital and insisted on being tested for the novel coronavirus. He soon learned he was one of the first two confirmed cases in Pakistan.