With a population of around 630.000 people, Montenegro could be a relatively easy task for the epidemiologists.
“We can come to grips with the epidemic in one municipality or one country –time is all we need – but it is all in vain if epicenter of infection is still around. This is not the decision one country must render. We all depend on each other and unity and togetherness on global level is crucial now”, said Dr Senad Begić, assistant director of the Institute for Public Health.
He says experts are satisfied with the achieved results.
“In the very beginning, our goal was to suppress the epidemic, but the question is how utopian that goal is. Montenegro has the opportunity to suppress the epidemic and prevent virus from attacking the most vulnerable people, but we want is to take the burden off the healthcare system”, Dr Begić says.
Montenegrins love celebrating a lot and mourning a lot
Dr Begić says Montenegrin way of dealing with the virus is clearly specific.
“There are no rules to be applied in case of pandemic – whoever saw one pandemic, they saw every other pandemic”, Dr Begić pints out.
He also points at cultural differences.
“Montenegrins love celebrating a lot and mourning a lot. We identified at least three or four funerals which were key events in spread of the infection. There’s again a great level of unity at every step”, Dr Begić says.
Funerals and family gatherings are ways to spread infection in Montenegro. He stresses that around 40% of infected persons are in two big clusters.
“We still manage to identify all contacts. We have several cases where source of infection is unknown, but at this level it can be understood”, Dr Begić says.
The first problem epidemiologists came across was the condemnation of the infected people.
“We also managed to address that problem”, Dr Begić says.
Tuzi like China
A special phase of Montenegrin fight against coronavirus took place in Tuzi.
The youngest Montenegrin municipality went into complete lockdown.
“In Tuzi we had a family cluster in which initial case returned from the USA and had many contacts before he developed symptoms. As soon as we received data, we suggested that entire municipality shall be put in lockdown”, Dr Begić says.
Number of infections in Tuzi stopped at 36.
“What residents of Tuzi achieved was seen only in China – total adherence to measures, which put the cluster out”, Dr Begić says.
Hard to predict further developments
For Dr Begić, future remains vague.
However, he is sure that ban on mass gatherings during Easter was a right decision.
“Any mass gathering is epidemic risk”, Dr Begić warned.
Dr Begić has many doubts concerning the future and return to normal lives.
“That’s very difficult to predict as no data indicates this virus will become weaker with hot weather. Lifting of measures will be carried out successively”, Dr Begić says.
“Epidemic reading” of Tito
Dr Senad Begić is one of the youngest experts who is fighting coronavirus at highest level.
He was born in 1981, studied medicine in Podgorica and specialized in epidemiology in Belgrade.
“We study for this, like Tito used to say – we prepare as it the war was going to break out tomorrow, we live as if we are going to be in peace for 100 years. We prepare and educate ourselves for pandemics, but we hope we will never feel their destructive power”, Dr Begić says.
Dr Begićhas been working in the Institute for Public Health for 12 years.
Dr Begić is not offended by the statement that epidemiology has never been the most wanted specialization field.
“Over the past several years, epidemiology has become more interesting branch”, Dr Begić concludes.
