Health collapse in Brazil: authorities now fear lack of oxygen and drugs

Brazil, the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, fears the lack of oxygen and drugs in some intensive care units (ICU) which are on the sidelines, while seeking to give a boost to the vaccination campaign with the arrival this Sunday of the first batch of doses of the international Covax program.

Regional governors have warned of the possibility of a “collapse-within-collapse” that the public health system is already experiencing, following the explosion of infections that hit the whole country at the same time.

The reason? The shortage, detected in parts of Brazil, of substances used for patients with severe images of covid-19. This is called the “intubation kit”, which includes oxygen, pain relievers, sedatives, and neuromuscular blockers, among other drugs.

The problem lies in the ever increasing saturation of hospitals.

USIs in 25 of the 27 Brazilian states have an occupancy rate of 80% or more – in 15 states it is already 90%– which has led to the scarcity of these vitally important medical supplies.

Brazil has so far accumulated nearly 12 million positives and 295,000 deaths due to covid-19, according to official data.

In five days this week, he added more than 2,400 daily deaths associated with the disease and the forecast does not point to near-term improvement, quite the contrary.

This week, the National Front of Mayors, which brings together Brazilian municipal leaders, He warned that in at least 76 cities, oxygen supplies are about to run out.

The attorney general’s office also alerted the health ministry that the northern Amazon states of Acre and Rondonia could start suffering from shortages from Wednesday next week.

This fear became a reality last January in the state of Amazonas.

There, it is estimated that at least 50 people died of suffocation due to lack of oxygen.According to the prosecution, which opened an investigation into the alleged “omission” in this crisis of the outgoing Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello.

In other regions of the country, with a better health structure, a priori, there were also problems of oxygen supply.

In Sao Paulo, the most affected Brazilian city in absolute numbers, with nearly 600,000 positives and more than 20,000 deaths, a dozen patients were transferred this weekend to another hospital due to a delay in the delivery of oxygen cylinders by the responsible company.

In the metropolitan area of ​​Porto Alegre, authorities have reported the deaths of six people also due to “problems with the distribution of oxygen”.

In this context, Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has taken a series of measures to avoid greater evils, such as eliminating bureaucracies for registration, the distribution and importation of these drugs, and authorize the filling of industrial cylinders with medical gas.

In the same vein, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a series of contacts abroad to facilitate the purchase of these products, according to the newspaper “O Estado de Sao Paulo”.

While, The Ministry of Health continues the transition process since last Monday President Jair Bolsonaro, a denial of the danger of the virusannounced to its fourth Minister of Health since the start of the pandemic, cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga.

However, Queiroga has yet to officially assume the portfolio, as the country consecutively breaks its death and infection records.

In addition, The magazine Crusoe published that the future minister is indicted in a criminal action for an alleged “crime against public property” by not collecting social security contributions from the employees of a private clinic he ran.

Bolsonaro, for his part, celebrated his 66th birthday in Brasilia this Sunday with hundreds of his supporters, many without a mask, and again criticized the health measures.

The vaccination campaign is continuing at a slow pace in this continental country, with 212 million inhabitants and which has always been an example to carry out its vaccination programs.

Vaccines against covid-19 began to be applied in mid-January and so far 5.5% of the population have received the first dose and the second only 2%.

Given the difficulty of reaching cruising speed, due in part to the shortage of immunizers, The Ministry of Health released this Sunday to states and municipalities the administration of vaccines that were originally reserved for the second dose.

Pazuello said in a note that the measure will “double” the vaccination rate from next week.

In addition, this Sunday he arrived at Guarulhos International Airport, in Sao Paulo, the first batch of vaccines from the international Covax program. This is one million doses of the drug AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, produced by a South Korean laboratory.

Before the end of March, another shipment containing two million more doses from the same manufacturer is also expected to arrive.

With information from EFE

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