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The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Tuesday that the COVID-19 pandemic increases the risk of death from mosquito-borne diseases, having limited the response capacity of health services.
“The reality is that mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit continue to circulate. And without testing or treatment, severe cases of mosquito-borne diseases could go from being easily treatable conditions to (causing) death, ”said Carissa Etienne, PAHO Director, on the threat posed by dengue and malaria.
At a press conference, Etienne stressed that COVID-19, declared a global pandemic in March by the World Health Organization (WHO), could set back the decades-long struggle to eradicate these “widespread” ailments in the region.
And he pointed out that in some American countries, dengue, malaria and many tropical diseases “have a disproportionate impact on poor and vulnerable populations,” including indigenous communities, severely affected by COVID-19.
Increase in dengue cases
According to PAHO, in January and February, the American continent reported a 139% increase in dengue cases compared to the same period in 2019. But in March, with the emergence of the new coronavirus, the reported cases decreased.
Etienne said that the notification of mosquito-borne diseases, among which he also mentioned malaria, “has dropped more than 40%, and there has been a reduction in the number of people who are tested.”
“Without strong surveillance, we are not aware of how much these diseases are affecting our population, and therefore we cannot sufficiently plan services and save lives,” he said.
Negative impact against “soil” diseases
Etienne also lamented the negative impact of COVID-19 in the fight against tropical diseases such as lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections.
“Just when we were making significant progress,” he said, “the pandemic disrupted the mass drug administration campaigns that are vital to our elimination efforts.”
“These interruptions are likely to increase infection rates in the coming months,” he warned, while reiterating, as he has done in recent weeks, the imperative need to prevent the advance of HIV and tuberculosis.
Flatten the curve and control the transmission
With 10.8 million cases and almost 395 thousand deaths, the American continent is the worst hit by COVID-19. The most affected country, the United States, adds 163 thousand deaths, followed by Brazil (more than 101 thousand) and Mexico (53 thousand).
“Every day we see more than 100,000 new cases being reported in the Americas,” Etienne said.
More than half of the infections are registered in the United States, but “worrying peaks” are appearing in Colombia and Argentina, with “an expansion of cases” in Central America and a marked growth in the Caribbean in the Dominican Republic, he added.
The deputy director of PAHO, Jarbas Barbosa, called for “a greater effort” in Mexico to control the pandemic, when asked about the possibility that there will be some 150 thousand deaths from coronavirus for December in that country, according to a projection of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington (IHME).
“There has been a very significant growth in the number of deaths in Mexico in recent weeks, which indicates that it is necessary for the authorities to be able to review the measures that are being adopted (…) to reduce the speed of transmission,” he said.
The challenge for the entire region is to “prevent” the forecasts from being met, he said.
Increases in South America
Barbosa also noted “a very significant increase” in COVID-19 cases in Bolivia, and said that in Chile and Ecuador there is “a still very high level of transmission.”
“The challenge facing the countries of the region today is not only to flatten the curve, but to control transmission,” he emphasized.
To do this, he called for the implementation of social distancing measures “more effectively” and for “expanding” the testing capacity and traceability of the contacts of those infected.
© Agence France-Presse
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