“I have a fever and I'm coughing, I went to the Aix-en-Provence hospital but they didn't want to test me for the coronavirus. I was not very happy with the reception of this hospital and I came as soon as I knew that the IHU screened everyone and offered treatment if we were sick. A Aix trader, Nora was patient this Monday in the queue of several hundred meters which stretched on the sidewalks in front of the Marseille Timone hospital.
The day before, the Institut hospitalo-universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infections of this hospital, directed by Professor Didier Raoult, had indeed announced that it would test free of charge all the febrile patients who present themselves, positive cases being offered a treatment based on chloroquine, a molecule that the Marseilles doctor has been defending for several weeks and that it has already tested on affected patients.
"I prefer to be clear about it"
Result: a queue from the start of the morning made up of worried Marseillais, with a majority of people wearing masks and sometimes gloves, generally respecting the distance of one meter. On the hospital gates, anonymous people hung banners with messages of support and thanks to the caregivers while a police car ensured that there was no crowd.
“I am asthmatic and I have been feeling sick since this morning. I consulted my doctor, but I prefer to have my heart clear. If I am sick, I would like to know this and be treated with chloroquine ”, explains Danielle, accompanied by her husband and daughter. "If I can't get through today because there are too many people, I will come back tomorrow. In any case, I want to be tested ”.
“My 7 year old son is confined with me and he started to cough. I don't know if it's the coronavirus, but if it has it, I necessarily have it, that's why I came to get tested, ”says Rose behind her mask. The Marseillaise also carried a folding bag so that she could sit in a queue that would last several hours.
"He may be the savior of humanity"
"I trust Professor Raoult, he may be the savior of humanity," she continues. "Anyway, when you're in a sinking boat, you hold on to everything that goes by. This doctor is the only one to offer treatment, there is nothing else ... If I am positive, I will take the treatment they will prescribe. The Marseillais appreciated in any case the choice of the IHU and its doctors not to have waited for official authorizations to embark on this massive screening followed by care.
"I work in logistics and we have already had positive cases in my hangar, my general practitioner cannot test me," says Claude, who had been waiting for two hours but who was still far from the steps to access the IHU. “I believe that Marseille is the only city which offers to be tested like that, we are really lucky. But I don't understand why this isn't done everywhere. "