Coronavirus is spiking in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and elsewhere, and health experts have called Latin America the new epicenter of the pandemic.
The Americas with more than 3.8 million reported cases is now the hardest-hit region in the world. But the impact has been uneven. Some countries have successfully slowed the rate of new infections; others see that rate continuing to climb.

Dr Carissa Etienne is director of the Pan American Health Organization. She says the United States has the most cases, but other parts of the region are seeing an uptick in cases as well.

Carissa says, “We are seeing rising levels of transmission, some of them exponentially in Brazil, in Chile and Peru in South America. In Mesoamerica in Mexico also Panama and Costa Rica.”

At the start of the pandemic, Latin American countries closed their borders and issued physical distancing measures. But, Carissa says, virus eventually came in with returning travelers.

“So the early cases of Covid-19, were returning nationals who had been to Europe holidaying in Spain and Italy and France for the most part. And then they were returning home and were being diagnosed.”

These initial cases often had the space and financial resources to self-isolate so it was easy to control the spread. But Carissa says eventually Covid-19 reached poor and vulnerable communities where transmission was much harder to contain. That was especially the case in crowded and urban areas with inadequate access to water and sanitation.

“In many of our vulnerable populations, they belong to an informal economy. So they have to go out every day. They must go out every day for their livelihood. They share public transportation. They cannot they cannot implement physical distancing. There is no facility for handwashing. So, in fact, all of the public health measures that we're insisting to be able to protect yourself, they can't.”

Carissa says there’s also another reason why the poor have disproportionately suffered from this outbreak.

“They don't have significant access to health services. Even when the government says, well, you can come to health services and it's free. But they are so not used to running to a health service for a cough or a cold because normally they would have to pay or the service is so far away from them. So that complicates really the efforts of the government to slow the transmission.”

Carissa says the coronavirus is exposing vulnerabilities among certain racial and ethnic groups.

“The migrant population, the urban population that are living in low-income areas. Afro-descendants… so the black population in Latin America is a vulnerable group as well. We saw around the Amazon basin, we are seeing really large number of outbreaks of large number of cases. The two most vulnerable groups in Brazil is your Afro-descendant population and the indigenous population.”

Carissa says Latin America is also experiencing a rise in cases because countries don’t have sufficient access to gloves, face masks and other personal protective equipment, or PPE, needed to keep health care workers safe. It isn’t made locally, and shortages have led to infections among health care workers.

“The percentage rates differ from countries to countries. But, we are seeing a moderate level of infection of health care workers because they have no PPEs, because they have to reuse PPEs. That is a problem.”

Carissa was responsible for drawing up the region’s plan for an influenza pandemic in 2006. But, she says, the coronavirus pandemic is nothing like she had imagined. Covd-19 has taught her a couple of things -- the importance of a solid primary health care system and equitable access to health care.

“I have characterized this pandemic as a crisis of health, a crisis of the economy and a social crisis. And I think as we go forward, we need to plan differently. So we need to do social inclusion. And look after people's needs much better. We need to think going forward with an approach that is based on equity, on human rights and solidarity, because really countries cannot think of going it alone. They have to come together. They have to share experiences.”

While economic development has been a major priority for many countries in the Americas, the pandemic has shown how quickly and devastatingly a virus can undermine years, if not decades, of prosperity. Carissa says she has no doubt the world will face more pandemics. What’s important is that we learn the lessons from this one.

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