Our US Office
105 West Monument Street
Baltimore, Maryland
21201
Nicaragua
1 kilometro antes de Limon 1
Carratera Tola-Salinas,
Rivas
Nicaragua: 011-505-8887-7413

Coronavirus in Nicaragua: What Our Clinic Is Doing

Dear Friend of Our NicaClinic,

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic team is diligently monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation in Nicaragua and around the globe.

As of this writing, Nicaragua’s Ministry of Health has confirmed one case of COVID-19 in the country. This is a rapidly evolving situation, so there may be more cases by the time you receive this message.

Our team has taken several precautionary measures for the Clinic and the surrounding communities:

Expanded measures for febrile patients

• These efforts were based on Nicaragua’s care protocol to prevent contamination in the Clinic and the disease’s spread to other patients.

• We will be setting up a tent outside the Clinic to isolate and care for patients with fever.

Increased provision of resources for prevention of cross contamination

• We’ve raised the bar for general hygiene standards, such as hand-washing, wearing protective clothing, using disposable materials, disinfecting surfaces and fumigating areas.

• We’ve assigned a separate area for hand-washing before patients go inside the Clinic.

Boosted readiness for further protection and isolation measures if necessary

• We’ve limited the patients and relatives who may enter the Clinic.

• In the case of patients who may have COVID-19, a Ministry of Health ambulance will come to transport them to a nearby hospital after they are stabilized, instead of using our Clinic transport.

Community Outreach

Some of these measures are applied daily when caring for our patients. Our commitment in Nicaragua is to support primary and emergency healthcare. We are focused on the prevention of diseases to improve quality of life and develop healthy communities. Some special measures to prevent disease, such as isolation of patients with a fever, are determined by the Ministry of Health of Nicaragua and are now mandatory for all public and private health services.

We are proactively working to educate the surrounding communities about COVID-19. We recently offered an educational talk to nearby Rancho Santana resort employees. We will be doing the same at the nearby FunLimón foundation this week.

In the following weeks, we will be working on a community preventive plan to share with the schools in the area. Moreover, during each Diabetes Club meeting, we take the opportunity to educate members on prevention, as diabetic patients are more vulnerable to the disease.

We believe that prevention is key when it comes to health. This means working to modify the habits or behaviors that can contribute to getting sick. Our Clinic team promotes healthy behaviors like drinking clean water, practicing good personal hygiene, protecting lungs from smoke and dust, eating more organic fruits and vegetables, managing stress, and getting great sleep and exercise.

These recent years the Clinic has worked hard to expand our wellness programs to include clean water distribution, exercise and career development for the team, education, well care and medicines support for impoverished families, expanded community organic gardens, the Diabetes Club, our annual Health Fair, and more. We will continue carefully monitoring the situation in Nicaragua and around the world in the coming weeks – adjusting our current actions as the disease evolves.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic has become a model emergency clinic and wellness center nonprofit for the entire region.

We need your support to provide a healthy environment for the community and Clinic staff. This nonprofit is a critical resource in a very poor region. The dedicated local team of professionals serves thousands of families each year. The locals have come to rely on our Clinic for their healthcare, as we are the only facility in the entire region open 24/7, with outreach programs and a long history of being there for this region, especially in the midst of crisis. Visit our website at www.nicaclinic.org to learn more about our Clinic programs and recent news in this beautiful but poor coastal region of Nicaragua.

The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic is supported primarily by individual donations. Thanks to a corporate matching program with The Oxford Club, your donation goes further. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in Maryland, so your donations are also tax-deductible. We accept funds through PayPal, where you can also donate with your credit card. You can also mail a check, and we accept stock donations as well. To donate, click here.

Sincerely,

Dr. José Mosquera
Clinic Director and CEO
The Roberto Clemente Health Clinic