Second COVID-19 Infection Claims Life of Bolivian Leader in Fight Against Pandemic

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The man who designed the strategy to fight the coronavirus pandemic in Bolivia’s most populous region of Santa Cruz, Dr. Óscar Javier Urenda Aguilera, died this morning, July 24th, of a second COVID infection after recovering from a first bout with the disease and returning to lead efforts to contain the epidemic in Bolivia.

Due largely to his position as a health professional in charge of the fight against the pandemic, this is one of the few well-documented cases of re-infection in the world.

Urenda, who was the Secretary of Health of the Department of Santa Cruz for the last 10 years, took the threat seriously and mounted an early and broad strategy for containment of the infections his region. Often inspecting conditions in the field and meeting with workers in the trenches, he led the Santa Cruz communications strategy to get a public buy-in into a collective effort against COVID-19, at times becoming frustrated by non-compliance from sectors of the population.

“It is unfair that the lack of conscience, the irresponsibility of a few, can bring disaster upon the majority of the population,” he could be heard saying in May, trying to move public opinion and peer pressure to follow the area’s quarantine restrictions and mask recommendations.

He worked from isolation and spent two weeks hospitalized before being released May 23 after testing negative for the virus several times. Armed with the supposed immunity, he headed into the wetlands of Bolivia’s hard-hit Amazonic region of Beni, to help coordinate contention efforts.

But on June 1st, after a weekend of malaise, difficulty breathing, and high fevers, the 72-year-old Urenda tested positive again for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. He was hospitalized with generalized bronchial acute respiratory discomfort.

“I am worried because I don’t know how it will end, I hope it ends in something good that will return me home healthy and with enough antibodies to defend myself,” said Urenda in a statement at the time. “I will pull through; these days will pass, and we’ll back together.”

His health continued to deteriorate, however. After 46 days in ICU, intubated, he died this Friday, July 24th, at 1:24 am. His death was announced that same morning.

This marks the loss to COVID-19 of the man leading the fight against COVID in Bolivia’s most affected region and largest population center. Santa Cruz is also the region most interconnected with Brazil, due to extensive commercial and agricultural trade, and tens of thousands of Brazilian medical students in the area.

The loss also marks a downturn in the region’s fight against the advancing virus. The chief of Epidemiology of Santa Cruz’s Department of Health, Dr. Roberto Tórrez is also fighting COVID-19 while in intensive care. Urenda’s death hits Bolivia in its worst moment in the fight against the pandemic and it illustrates just how much trouble the country could be heading into.

For now, he is being hailed as a Hero for Health, a fallen hero, and the icon of Bolivia’s fight against COVID-19. “He was a man who gave his life to care for the health of his people,” wrote Adrian Oliva, governor of the Bolivian department of Tarija.

“He was a man with much experience, a very correct man, very dedicated to his profession, a man who loved Santa Cruz,” says Ives Costas, a resident of Santa Cruz de la Sierra and keen observer of the developments in the region. “He was there, fighting in the trenches, not behind a desk; he dedicated much of himself to attend to this health emergency as to all previous ones, and to preserve life. He sacrificed his life for the health of all of us.”

“A warrior without equal has left us,” said Wilfredo Rojo, first minister of the Bolivian Embassy in Brazil. “I shared with him almost one month of fighting against this stinking virus. He faced it without conditions and without excuses. May God send us more men like Oscar Urenda.”