Flawed healthcare systems in several Latin American countries are fueling the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak.
Brazil, Mexico, and Peru have collectively reported about 1.6 million cases, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Dr. Marcos Espinal, chief of the Department of Communicable Diseases and Health Analysis at the Pan American Health Organization, said the tally is almost certainly an undercount.
“It is higher because no country in the world has the real number of cases,” Espinal told Scientific American. “Remember, even in rich countries, some people decided not to go and be tested. But it’s clear that the number of cases in Latin America is underestimated.”
Brazil
Latin America is the new epicenter of the pandemic, and Brazil is ground zero. The first case in Brazil was reported in February, and now, the country is second only to the United States in number of cases — with more than 1.1 million reported. President Jair Bolsonaro, Paulo Lotufo at the University of Sao Paulo said, “is responsible for everything.”
Bolsonaro, who tested positive for the virus in March, refused to wear a protective face mask, called the coronavirus a “little flu,” and continued to hold political rallies where he shook hands with constituents. A right-wing populist, Bolsonaro has also sidelined public health experts tasked with responding to the pandemic. Two health ministers resigned in the span of about a month after Bolsonaro repeatedly encouraged Brazilian workers to defy lockdown measures and urged wider use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which was once believed to be a treatment for COVID-19, Reuters reported.
Brazil is also conducting far too few tests to keep up with the daily increase in new cases. As of May 12, Brazil had processed 337,595 diagnostic tests, according to Reuters. That same day, the number of tests performed in the U.S. had exceeded 9.7 million, according to COVID Tracking Project data.
Mexico
Mexico has the second-highest death toll in Latin America, trailing behind Brazil. The number of cases has surpassed 191,000 and has steadily increased since mid-May. Mexico City has experienced the worst of the outbreak due in part to a high rate of transmission among workers at the Central de Abasto, Latin America’s biggest food market.
Mexico’s president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, implemented a lockdown in March that lasted almost two months. He sent mixed messages during the lockdown, however, holding political rallies early on and showing supporters his “good luck charms” — Catholic amulets, a four-leaf clover, and a U.S. $2 bill, according to Mexican news outlet Informador.
“They are my bodyguards,” he said in March.
Lopez Obrador has resumed travel across the country and said in a press conference earlier this month that “we have to enter a new normality,” according to the Washington Post.
Much of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, paycheck to paycheck. Essential workers who cannot afford to stay away from work resumed daily activities, often working close to one another in confined spaces. The neighborhood in Mexico City where the Central de Abasto market is located has reported at least 869 coronavirus-related deaths, according to data compiled by Forbes.
The coronavirus has also crippled Mexico’s healthcare workforce. More than 11,000 healthcare workers in Mexico have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to government health officials. Doctors make up more than half of COVID-19 deaths among healthcare workers, 55%. Nurses make up 17% of deaths among healthcare workers. About 28% of deaths in the health workforce include ambulance workers, maintenance staff, lab technicians, and more, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Peru
Peru has roughly 261,000 coronavirus cases, with more than 100,000 cases in the capital city alone, according to La Republica. President Martin Vizcarra announced a nationwide lockdown in March, but most Peruvians who work informal jobs that include housekeeping and selling goods on the streets continued working in order to get by.
Peru’s public health system struggled to deal with a precipitous rise in new cases, having been underfunded for years prior to the start of the outbreak. Peru’s health minister, Victor Zamora, announced in April that the country was short on oxygen by about 180 metric tons and announced that the government was launching a $28 million initiative to import oxygen and build plants to produce necessary oxygen, according to Peruvian news outlet Gestion.
However, price gouging for oxygen tanks is out of control as the black market fills the void that the underinvested healthcare system left behind. Individuals with COVID-19 who need oxygen are now resorting to paying for oxygen supplies online at roughly a 1,000% markup, the Washington Post reported.
Peru is expected to exceed hospital bed capacity by July, according to data generated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The IHME also predicts that as many as 21,000 people could die by August. The country has already exceeded 8,400 deaths.
