Honorable Mention TOKYO-2020 Editorial / Photo Essay

Country Doctor

  • Photographer
    Gabriele Micalizzi
  • Agency / Studio
    Cesura
  • Photo Date
    March/April/May 2020

Once the Covid-19 pandemic started spreading in Italy, Luigi Cavanna, the head of the Oncology ward in Piacenza Hospital, decided that the best way to approach the disease was to treat it early, in the same way you would treat cancer. Equipped with a device that monitors the level of oxygen in the blood and a portable ultrasound chest scanner, doctor Cavanna started visiting patients at their home - treating them mostly with hydroxychloroquine. In this way, he saved more than 365 patients. Only a small percentage saw their condition worsen to the point where they needed to be hospitalized.

Gabriele Micalizzi is an Italian photojournalist, he collaborates with national and international newspapers. He is one of the founders of the Italian collective Cesura, with the photographer Alex Majoli. In 2011 he began to reporting all the events related to the "Arab Spring". In 2019, during the Kurdish offensive in the Baghuz area against the last bastion of Isis, he was wounded by an RPG rocket. In Libya he cover the arrival of Turkish troops sent to help President Al Sarraj resist General Haftar's attack. In 2020 it followed the pandemic in the most affected areas of Italy.