80,000 masks for Nepal

Strama-MPS donates for Dhulikhel Hospital in Kathmandu

At the beginning of the Corona crisis, the Straubing-based company Strama-MPS was highly flexible in setting up a mask production facility and constructively tackled the bottleneck at that time. Strama-MPS produces type II and type IIR surgical masks as well as community masks. The weekly volume is 2.5 million masks on six lines on six days in three shifts. Now Strama has handed over 80000 type II surgical masks to Prof. Norbert Weigert from the St. Elisabeth Hospital in Straubing. Their destination: Nepal.

While the Corona situation in Germany is increasingly easing and many people have justified hopes of a pleasant summer, the Corona virus is still raging in many developing countries with serious consequences.
developing countries with serious consequences. The delta variant, which first appeared in India, has now spread rapidly in Nepal. Apparently, it is even more aggressive and contagious than the British alpha mutation that was most recently prevalent in Germany. This is how Prof. Norbert Weigert, chief physician of the I. Medical Clinic at the St. Elisabeth Hospital, describes the situation there. Like 13 other renowned specialists from all over Germany and Switzerland, Weigert is a member of the Gastroenterology Foundation e.V. and is involved in its Nepal project. Their common goal is "to provide good medicine to the poorest of the poor." For two years in a row, Weigert has used his vacation for unpaid on-site work at Dhulikhel Hospital in Kathmandu. He has treated patients and provided gastroenterology training for professional colleagues and nurses. At the end of
2020, he wanted to work there again. Corona threw a spanner in the works. Now he and his colleagues from the Gastroenterology Foundation are collecting donations, primarily for protective materials.

Situation in Nepal remains devastating

His friend and colleague Dr. Ram Gurung, who heads the internal medicine department at Dhulikhel Hospital and is responsible for the care of Covid patients, has now described the situation in Nepal in an e-mail.
describing the situation in Nepal as continuing to be devastating, Weigert says. Although all available hospital beds would be made available for the Covid patients, the hospital's capacity is insufficient to provide good care for the seriously ill, he said. "This crisis has depleted financial resources; the Nepalese government is unable to provide substantial assistance to the hospitals and the people." A great many people continue to die from covid, Weigert says, because of unchanged
great shortage of oxygen to supply patients. In addition, Nepal's economic situation has deteriorated dramatically. Very many people have become unemployed and thus destitute. "In Nepal, another much stronger corona wave was also foreshadowed in the spring for the summer." Therefore, it was a great concern for Weigert to organize protective material for the Dhulikhel Hospital. "With the support of several companies as well as the Gastroenterology Foundation and the Namaste Foundation, we were able to load two large shipping containers with relief supplies on April 7 and send them on their way to Nepal, where they are expected to arrive in the next few days." The
Strama company has generously supported the aid campaign and donated 80,000 certified type II surgical masks. Weigert expresses his sincere thanks for this. The masks are
on their way to Nepal, organized by the Gastroenterology Foundation.

Source: Straubinger Tagblatt