PAHO Sees No Sign of Covid-19 Deceleration in the Americas

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The spread of Covid-19 has not shown “signs of slowing down” in the Americas, said yesterday, July 21st, the director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa Etienne, commenting that Brazil, the United States, and Mexico are the countries where the most deaths have occurred due to the disease.

According to Ms. Etienne, last week alone, an additional 900,000 cases and 22,000 deaths were recorded on the continents. “By yesterday [July 20th] there were 311,000 deaths reported in the Americas,” the PAHO director said at a press conference. “The pandemic has not been showing signs of a slowdown in this region.”

According to the PAHO’s Incident Manager for Covid-19, Sylvain Aldighieri, the organization is particularly concerned with the indigenous populations of the Amazon, both in Brazil and Peru, for which, according to him, “specific strategies” must be developed to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

“Covid-19 has endangered a large part of the indigenous population who live in both villages and cities,” said Aldighieri, as he advocated greater rapprochement of indigenous leaders with public authorities, in addition to the adoption of isolation and quarantine measures for those with symptoms of the disease.

Aldighieri stressed that for such an approach to be truly efficient, good communication work is needed “not in the sense of translating the information, but of tailoring the message, bearing in mind local practices and symbols” that are readily understood by these populations.

“I stress that the importance of including these local leaders is also important in order to help them in interpreting rumors [in order to prevent the spread of fake news]. Local authorities need to be aware of these populations’ traditional practices [as a strategy for more efficient communication],” he added.

Hydroxychloroquine

Aldighieri reinforced the position of the World Health Organization against the use of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of the novel coronavirus. “We do not recommend the use of this medicine. Studies have been discontinued, and several articles published in leading international journals have shown the inefficacy of chloroquine for the treatment of Covid. These are major aspects to be emphasized,” said the PAHO manager.

According to the PAHO Director of Communicable Diseases, Marcos Espinal, some political leaders need to be convinced that Covid-19 is a “serious issue” about “a problem that still has no solution”. “Life is the most important thing. We have to persuade some leaders about that,” Espinal said.

Vaccines

According to the PAHO deputy director, Jarbas Barbosa, there are currently over 150 vaccine projects in progress. Five projects are in phase 3, the final one involving human trials – a measure that is required to prove that the vaccine is safe and effective. According to Barbosa, the vaccine is expected to be ready within six months to a year.

“It is critical that the vaccines reach the end of this process and prove that they can prevent the disease. Vaccines developed on dubious and innovative platforms may find it difficult to expedite these deadlines. Hence the need for countries to work in coordination,” Barbosa said.

He recalled that there are currently 300 million doses of the most advanced vaccine manufactured. “The goal is to reach two billion doses, which will be sufficient for the first stage goal, of about 20 percent of the population in all countries, including the elderly, health professionals, and adults with some type of infirmity.

Source: Agência Brasil