oa Special issue on the first conference on COVID-19 in Iraq: The international scientific conference of Alnahrain College of Medicine and Iraqi colleges of Medicine in Iraq confronting COVID-19 pandemic

Since December 2019, a local outbreak in China of atypical pneumonia has gradually spread all over the world in a few months; this set off a worldwide pandemic of a newly designated viral respiratory disease called COVID-19 which is caused by a new member of the Coronaviridae family, being named SARS-CoV-2 with multiple emerging variants¹. This pandemic shed a burden on different sectors of life particularly health, economy, and education². The current issue is dedicated to the first of its kind conference held by Alnahrain College of Medicine and Iraqi colleges of Medicine namely "The international scientific conference of Alnahrain College of Medicine and Iraqi colleges of Medicine in Iraq confronting COVID-19 pandemic". This conference aimed at providing a platform for demonstrating and analyzing observational and analytical studies and efforts of Colleges of Medicine and Iraqi health bodies in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq. Such conference is necessary to discuss the burden of COVID-19 as well as the efforts and solutions toward this pandemic in Iraq. Moreover, this event shall serve as a good model for other low-income and third-world countries especially those in the region of the Middle East³.

The participating studies in this conference and the selected manuscripts published in this issue cover the challenges of medical education in colleges of Medicine during the pandemic and during the health quarantine, highlighting the role of medical faculties in researching and finding solutions to unprecedented challenges laid by the pandemic. Up to 66 observational and experimental studies on COVID-19 participated in the conference and 14 full articles on these studies are published in this special issue. These studies collectively turned up with essential conclusions and recommendations on how to tackle similar pandemics in the future. The current issue includes community medicine studies on the attitude of the population and medical students in Iraq toward the vaccination programs of COVID-19, efficiency and adverse effects of current therapeutics and immunization programs, severity and spread rate of the disease, the use of social media and telemedicine for online consultation, the impact of the pandemic on the surgical and medical practice, and the particular radiological changes in lungs of COVID-19 patients. In addition, the issue included immunological and virological studies on the causative agent of the disease, SARS-CoV-2, and its related morbid sequel.

It is firmly believed that the current issue on this pioneering conference on COVID-19 in Iraq serves a great purpose, analyzing the previous and current efforts laid for confronting COVID-19 pandemic and drawing conclusions and recommendations for proper alertness for future pandemics of comparable scale whether in Iraq or in the whole region of the Middle East.