Zahedan University of Medical Sciences

Report from: ZAUMS Public Relations & International Affairs Office
Published on: 20 February 2021

Iran COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ICERP) officially inaugurated in February 2021. H.E. Iran"s Minister of Health, Dr Saeed Namaki, along with Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Office of World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, and the WHO Representative in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr Christoph Hamelmann attended the ceremony.

Iran COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ICERP) is a US$ 50 million project that aims to scale up nationwide COVID-19 response to the epidemic via procurement and distribution of selected essential, life-saving medical equipment.The project will become operational in 136 hospitals, 43 medical centers.

As a member of the World Bank, Iran has become eligible to receive World Bank loans for emergency financing of EUR 45.685 million (US$49.658 million equivalent) to be provided on an exceptional basis to fund a modest share of the medical equipment needs of Iran to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The loan agreement has been signed between the World Bank and the Government of Islamic Republic of Iran. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been designated to implement via signing a contract with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to provide technical assistance in identification of items to be procured and their specifications.

The procurement is part of the COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ICERP), a collaboration plan between WHO and Iran"s Ministry of Health and Medical Education initiated on 16 June 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran have been planning to procure and deliver a total of 316 medical devices, including CT scanners, ultrasound machines, portable digital x-ray machines, as well as 135 diagnostic laboratory devices and their consumables. The devices are being distributed to 136 public hospitals and 43 laboratories across the country offering services for COVID-19 patients.

 It is worthwhile mentioning that the health facilities have been selected on the basis of the following eligibility criteria to receive the medical equipment:

1. All selected facilities will be civilian facilities;
2. Facilities will meet environmental and social criteria, including Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management, medical waste management in line with World Health Organization (WHO) standards and Good International Industry Practice (GIIP) in a manner consistent with the Environmental and Social Standards of the World Bank, and grievance redress mechanisms (GRM) before receiving the equipment;
3. Population"s needs (particularly those of the poor and vulnerable) related to COVID-19 will be taken into account;
4. Distribution of the equipment will be equitable with consideration to (i) the population size, and (ii) the level of poverty in the province where each hospital is located.

As part of this project Zahedan University of Medical Sciences so far has been provided with the following medical equipment:

1- One CT scanners
2- Twovideo laryngoscope
3- One Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) machine
4- TwoQIAquant96 5 plexreal-time PCR cyclers
5- Two zybio nucleic acid purification system (EXM3000) machines

The coronavirus disease 2019 (‎‎COVID-19)‎‎ pandemic has put a great burden on countries as a result of the demand for laboratory diagnostic testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (‎‎SARS-CoV-2)‎‎.

Iranian Ministry of Health provided the test kits for referral public health laboratories to perform real-time RT-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) detection of the corona virus (COVID-19) in respiratory specimens. Zahedan University of Medical Sciences received authorization from the Iranian Ministry of Health on February, 2020 for use of this rRT-PCR test to detect the virus in upper and lower respiratory specimens.

Testing for the COVID-19 virus was added to the existing surveillance systems (i.e. systems for influenza-like-illness and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)). The Zahedan University of Medical Sciences Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Laboratory was set up following training provided by the Pasteur Institute of Iran, due to the availability of efficient specialist personnel and equipment, in less than a week after the detection of the first few COVID-19 cases in Islamic Republic of Iran.

The implementation of the Iran COVID-19 Emergency Response Project (ICERP) has resulted in expanding real-time polymerase chain reaction testing capacity, through optimization of existing facilities.

The zybio nucleic acid purification system (EXM3000) machine is designed as a high-tech instrument to isolate and purify the nucleic acid through magnetic bead method featuring more efficient extraction, smaller size and safer operation. It takes only 9 min for extraction of 32 samples.

The QIAquant instruments combine a high-performance thermal block with fast and sensitive detection of PCR products, with a block capacity of 96 samples.

Copyright © 2021 Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved. Date updated: 20/02/2021
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