Stop me if you need: Yemen medic treats poor from his car
Al Hajj reaches out to those without accesses to technology
In a war-ravaged country now battling coronavirus, one Yemeni doctor is dispensing medical advice from his car, gathering a large social media following along the way.
“Stop me if you need a medical consultation,” reads a large sticker on the rear window of Sami Yahya Al Hajj’s four-wheel drive, alongside a cartoon figure of the bearded doctor wearing his square spectacles.
As he offers diagnoses and prescriptions to the poor, the doctor’s phone chirps with messages and calls from patients who cough and splutter as they explain their ailments.
Al Hajj said he started giving free consultations via social media but then wanted to reach to those without access to such technology.
“I thought about the poor and those in need on the streets who cannot get medical advice or don’t have the money for it,” he told AFP.
Yemen is facing what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. A war between the government and Houthi rebels has killed tens of thousands and displaced four million people.
Many Yemenis are afflicted by malnutrition and disease but the country’s health care system has all but collapsed, leaving it extremely vulnerable to the spread of the Covid-19 respiratory disease.
In the rebel-held capital of Sana’a, Al Hajj is flagged down by a man driving alongside his car. “My wife for the past week or two...” calls out the man, before Hajj asks him to pull over.
After a roadside consultation, Al Hajj prescribes a course of vitamins.
“We doctors are on the frontlines of this current pandemic, and we must disseminate advice even outside medical facilities,” said Hajj, who has nearly 18,000 followers on Facebook. “We must safeguard and maintain the health of the poor, because their health is part of the whole community,” he said.