CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) – For months, experts have been warning of a possible nightmare scenario: after overwhelming health systems in some of the richest regions in the world, the coronavirus has taken root in poor or war-torn countries and is sweeping through the population.
Now some of these fears are being recognized.
In southern YemenHealth workers are leaving their posts en masse due to a lack of protective equipment, and some hospitals are refusing to accept patients who have difficulty breathing. In the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan, where there is little testing capacity, it is a mysterious disease that resembles COVID-19 spreads in camps for internally displaced people.
Cases are increasing in India and PakistanTogether, more than 1.5 billion people live here. According to the authorities, nationwide barriers are no longer an option due to the high level of poverty.
In Latin America, Brazil has a confirmed number of cases and deaths after the United States, and its leader is unwilling to take action to curb the spread of the virus. There are alarming escalations in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Panama, even after they have been blocked prematurely.
The first reports of disorder also appear in hospitals in South Africa, where the continent’s most developed economy is located. Sick patients lie on beds in corridors because a hospital runs out of space. In another case, a mortuary was needed for more than 700 bodies.
“We’re now harvesting the whirlwind,” said Francois Venter, a South African health professional at the University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg.
There are 10 million confirmed cases worldwide and over 500,000 reported deaths. This emerges from a review of the government reports of Johns Hopkins University. Experts say that due to limited testing and missed mild cases, these two numbers represent a serious sub-count of the actual consequences of the pandemic.
South Africa has more than a third of cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Africa. It is ahead of other African countries during the pandemic and is nearing its climax. If its facilities break under the strain, it will be a grim warning as the South African health system is considered the best on the continent.
Most poor countries took action early. Some, such as Uganda, which had built a sophisticated detection system during its long struggle against viral hemorrhagic fever, have been more successful in fighting coronavirus than the United States and other wealthy countries.
But since the beginning of the pandemic, poor and conflict-ridden countries have generally been, and remain, disadvantaged.
The global mess of protective equipment caused prices to rise. Test kits were also hard to come by. The tracking and quarantine of patients requires a large number of health workers.
“It’s all a domino effect,” said Kate White, director of emergencies for MSF. “If there are countries that are not doing as economically as others, they will be affected.”
Global health experts say tests are key, but months after the pandemic, few developing countries can do tens of thousands of tests a week to identify and contain outbreaks.
“Most of the places we work don’t have that testing capacity, and that’s the level you need to really get things under control,” White said.
South Africa leads Africa in testing, but an initially promising program has now been overrun in Cape Townwho reported more cases than any other African country except Egypt. Critical bottlenecks in kits have forced city officials to stop testing for people under the age of 55 unless they are in serious health or in a hospital.
Venter said a Cape Town-style boom could easily take place in “the big cities of Nigeria, Congo, Kenya” next, and “they don’t have the health resources we have”.
Locks are probably the most effective protection, but they have taken a heavy toll even on middle-class families in Europe and North America, and are economically devastating in developing countries.
India’s lock, the largest in the world, caused countless migrant workers in major cities to lose their jobs overnight. Fearing hunger, thousands walked the highways to return to their home villagesand many were killed in traffic accidents or died of dehydration.
The government has since set up quarantine facilities and now offers special rail services to bring people home safely. However, there are concerns that migration has already spread the virus to the rural areas of India, where the health infrastructure is even weaker.
Poverty has also accelerated the pandemic in Latin America, where millions had to go out and continue to work informally and then return to crowded houses where they passed the virus on to relatives.
Peru’s strict three-month ban could not contain its outbreakAccording to Johns Hopkins, it now has the sixth highest number of cases worldwide with a population of 32 million. Intensive care units are almost 88% occupied and the virus shows no signs of slowing down.
“Hospitals are on the brink of collapse,” said epidemiologist Ciro Maguiña, professor of medicine at Cayetano Heredia University in the capital, Lima.
Aid groups have tried to help, but they have faced their own struggles. MSF says the price of masks tripled at one point and was still higher than normal.
The group also faces obstacles to transporting medical care to remote areas as international and domestic flights have been drastically reduced. And since wealthy donor countries are struggling with their own outbreaks, there are concerns that they will limit humanitarian aid.
Yemen, who has been living in the civil war for five years, was home to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world before the virus appeared. Now the Houthi rebels are suppressing all information about an outbreak in the northand the health care system in the government-controlled south is collapsing.
“Coronavirus has entered our homes, our cities, and our country,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman al-Azraqi, internist and former hospital director in the city of Taiz, who is divided between the rival forces. He estimates that 90% of Yemeni patients die at home.
“Our hospital has no doctors, just a few nurses and administrators. There is practically no medical treatment. “
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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated press writers Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg, Emily Schmall in New Delhi, Isabel DeBre in Cairo, Franklin Briceño in Lima, Peru and Michael Weissenstein in Havana contributed to this report.
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