08/11/2020 - 15:57
- Clarín.com
- Society
As she was doing a general review of the coronavirus situation in Latin America, nobody expected it, but Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was emphatic and named two countries with infection figures that these days call the attention: "We are seeing worrying peaks in places that had managed to contain their epidemics from the beginning, such as Colombia and Argentina ."
The comment was framed in a global warning about the consequences that the pandemic is leaving for PAHO in the region, in a virtual information meeting held this Tuesday. In this context, Etienne said, the pandemic is "reducing" efforts in the fight against other infectious diseases that weigh heavily on the population of Latin America, to the point of "increasing the mortality rate in the region."
It was only in the first part of his speech that he focused on the coronavirus numbers. He emphasized the number of deaths and infections in the United States and Brazil and, although he remarked that the former nucleated more or less half of the daily infections seen in America ("about 100,000 per day"), he stressed that "anyway the peaks in other places are worrying ”, precisely, Argentina and Colombia. Finally, he added other examples of "poor performance", this time in the Caribbean: Belize and the Dominican Republic.
Other PAHO referents participated in the meeting, such as Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, who differentiated the “strengths” of the Argentine health system in addressing the pandemic : “I would like to highlight the importance of having strong epidemiological surveillance, strengthened during the outbreak and in monitoring. Argentina is notifying through the international channel with all the details of the report by case. I would also like to highlight the expansion of the laboratory network and the experience of tracking contagions in marginal populations. These are aspects that have been shared with other countries like South Africa ”.
Regarding the proliferation of infections, he added that "Argentina faces the same challenges as several countries in its region, having a population mosaic and the challenge of finding a balance to ensure public health measures with restarting economic exchanges."
Then Etienne also warned about the current neglect of "the other important diseases of America", which could generate irreversible effects in the region. "The coronavirus is not the only threat to people's health: the pandemic is disrupting the possibility of controlling other diseases that we have been fighting for decades, " he said.
Beyond the chinstrap, circulation in CABA on weekends seems pre-pandemic, despite the quarantine due to the coronavirus. Photo: Germán García Adrasti
HIV, tuberculosis, dengue, and malaria (among other tropical infectious diseases) were at the center of Etienne's emphatic speech, which clarified that “the PAHO countries had committed themselves in October to fight against 30 diseases by 2030 , but the The possibility of meeting that goal is under threat from the emergence of Covid in health systems.
In this sense, he especially underlined his concern about the approach to tuberculosis , given that “80% of Latin America reports challenges in relation to this disease.” Thus, “a manageable situation could quickly become unmanageable”.
The main problem is the availability of resources in the midst of the pandemic , he explained, and gave two clear examples. On the one hand, retroviral medication for HIV-AIDS patients. On the other, the fact that "a third of Latin American countries experience interruptions in the detection of hepatitis cases."
In Vicente López, family outings allowed, in the context of the Covid-19 quarantine. / Télam
To this are added “diseases spread by mosquitoes: in the first months of 2020, America had a 139% increase in dengue cases , compared to 2019. We think that because we are locked up, we have less chance of being infected, but mosquitoes circulate and without testing (especially in malaria, he said), a treatable case could lead to death. "
Etienne urged countries not to interrupt treatment programs and prevention campaigns in relation to these diseases during the pandemic, as the “tools and information that people need to protect themselves from infections such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, diseases neglected tropical and other vaccine-preventable ”are essential.
If countries "make the effort", he evaluated, especially in the adequate protection of health workers ("those who are on the front line at the moment"), "the good news is that it is not too late" to take action. .
In short, he said, "countries cannot delay the fight against coronavirus, but we cannot let Covid-19 delay us in completing our incomplete agenda to dominate other infectious diseases."
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