The coronavirus pandemic has subjected the world's healthcare systems to the harshest tests in recent decades.
Regions like Latin America already had investment and development problems in their health centers, but
COVID-19 showed all the infrastructure and personnel failures that existed
.
In some way, the intense spread of SARS-CoV-2 is a symptom of another disease, a social illness that haunts Gerry Eijkemans, head of the Unit for Health Promotion and Social Determinants of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). ).
“We
must attack inequity in order to control COVID-19
.
It is important to understand this and include it in the governments' plans ”, asserts the expert.
According to recent figures from PAHO, Latin America has already exceeded one million deaths from COVID-19 and although
more than 153.5 million people have been vaccinated in the Americas,
only 21.6% are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gerry Eijkemans, head of the Health Promotion and Social Determinants Unit of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) .Noticias Telemundo
[The world exceeds four million deaths from coronavirus, equivalent to the population of Los Angeles]
With more than 25 years of experience in public health issues, Eijkemans has focused on studying the effects of government policies on the population's access to hospitals and the consequences of the profound inequality that plagues the region.
"
Injustice has become another virus that prevents the development of many countries
and that is very present in Latin America," he asserts.
***
—Last week, you participated in the 17th Urban Health Conference, what conclusions were generated about the effects that the pandemic has had on the cities of the region?
—In general, we must work for better governance that is more inclusive, more participatory and with a lot of intersectoral work.
When we talk about health in cities, it is a topic related to many sectors such as housing, transportation, urban planning and the environment, and that is very important because 80% of the people of the Americas live in cities.
Female participation in the labor market falls during the pandemic
March 9, 202101: 47
[The White House announces to which countries it will send 55 million vaccines against COVID-19]
- The urban centers were prepared to face a contingency of the magnitude of the COVID-19?
"The truth is that no city could be prepared for that."
In addition, this is the most unequal region in the world and that greatly affected the response of cities to the pandemic because economic growth was not strong and the biological entity that is COVID not only affected health, but also became a crisis social, economic and even political in some countries.
—What were the effects of those successive crises in cities as fragile as those of Latin America, with populations marked by low levels of education and high rates of poverty and marginalization?
"We don't have robust public health systems, so the virus couldn't be stopped."
We had to implement the most drastic public health measures very soon, such as closures, the use of face masks and physical distancing, but all of this had a very large effect on the people who lost their jobs and their income.
This has created a situation in which the populations are aware of the enormous inequality that affects them because only 25% were able to stay at home working, the rest could not stop and, when going to work, many became ill.
All of that worsens the public health crisis, we still have many lessons to learn.
- How was this inequality evidenced in more prosperous countries like the United States?
—People from Hispanic communities and migrants have suffered a lot.
Those people kept factories, farm fields and vital industries like meat production running, but they have had major outbreaks of the coronavirus.
In addition, their livelihoods have been affected and as many were already in precarious conditions before the pandemic, they are now living worse.
It is a problem that the US government must continue to address.
Children of the indigenous peoples of Colombia who participated in health days of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
[Mexico made more than 9,000 coronavirus infections from indigenous people invisible]
—Do you think that this situation could make Latin American cities more resilient to health emergencies?
- Totally, but you have to understand that resilience is not limited to infrastructure.
Often times that comes down to a government's ability to weather an earthquake or storm, but social, economic and political resilience also needs to be built.
Deep planning processes must be implemented where the governance of the city is rethought to put health in the middle of public policies, this is one of the paths that must be explored in the short term.
- What would you advise the leaders of the region to overcome and prevent this type of crisis in the future?
—Investment in public health was not enough. In our countries there are highly fragmented health systems where access to medical care depends on where you work. All that has to change, the governments of the Americas have to invest more in health. In addition, they could not cope with COVID, but they could not treat all chronic diseases, and that will be the next wave.