Covid-19 in context

The end of my work in a hospital in rural Congo-Brazzaville coincided with the worldwide Covid-19 outbreak. It was painful to leave, knowing that the pandemic would also hit Congo-Brazzaville in the very near future. Luckily, my fellow doctors and I had recently prepared for a possible spread of Ebola virus disease, and we had stockpiled a big container with personal protective equipment just before global demands skyrocketed. When I left, the hospital staff was worried that I would contract Covid-19 in Europe, as the number of new cases was rising quickly. It felt like the world upside down, and leaving amidst all this was difficult as it gave me a sense of letting them down. Many of my fellow global health doctors had to adapt to the pandemic. Everybody was eager to connect professionally, share resources, ask questions and discuss evidence, but there are personal stories as well. Here, we share four experiences of global health doctors around the world during the Covid-19 outbreak in the spring of 2020.