Heroes of Health, Long COVID, and the Death of a Doctor in Sudan

Editor's Note

Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman, an American physician who worked in Iowa and has family there, went back to Sudan ten years ago to care for his parents and help rebuild the country's health system. On April 25, outside his home in Khartoum, Sudan, he was stabbed and killed. This week, we remember Dr. Sulieman's legacy and work amidst the Sudan's dissolution. We also examine, how the country's health system is holding up and the critical role of health-care workers of Sudanese descent.

During the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, front-line health-care workers were lauded as heroes for their courageous efforts battling the virus—but praise does not pay utility bills or put food on the table. Our next contributor, who worked as a volunteer emergency medical technician, notes that most of her peers work more than forty hours a week yet struggle to make ends meet. Americans should push to overhaul the emergency medicine system to make it the well-staffed, resilient system the nation requires, she says.

Politicians and technical experts agree that the globe needs to better prepare for the next pandemic but estimates of how much that preparation will cost vary widely. Authors from Duke University call for standardizing international methods of projecting those costs in order to mobilize more financing and close gaps in the world's capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to new outbreaks.

Long COVID affects nearly one in thirteen U.S. adults and to wrap up the week, we present a slideshow on what researchers have learned since the early days of the pandemic about how the condition affects different age groups, whether vaccines mitigate its risks, and what treatments lessen its harms.

As always, thank you for reading. —Thomas J. Bollyky