Controversy over “health tourism”: they travel to be vaccinated and are infected by Covid | the Chronicle

Around the world, the coronavirus vaccination race is bringing states closer to a new normal, but progress has not been equal. In view of the shortage of injections, the practice of health tourism, with those who have the necessary money preferring travel abroad to be vaccinated.

As in Argentina, where fashion has become so widespread that Tourism-Covid-19-travel-agency-offers-packages-to-get-vaccinated-in-the-United States-20210510-0062.html “target =” _ blank “> travel agencies have started selling” vaccination packages “, Paraguay records a high number of travelers bound for immunity. With Miami as the most popular choice, the Paraguayan Association of Travel Agencies and Tourism Businesses has confirmed that 500 people a day travel from the country to the United States. However, cases recorded in recent days warn of the negative potential of this trend.

The doctor Jose fusillo, head of the Paraguayan Society of Pulmonology, warned that several travelers have already been diagnosed with who sought vaccines abroad. The expert stressed that injections are not an immediate solution, and even the vaccinated population must take the care already known: “The time during which the vaccine produces the antibodies varies between 2 and 3 weeks. The first dose could produce us up to 50% efficiency for the usual variant», He commented on the Paraguayan portal DNA.

The most serious concern of health tourism is the dissemination of new and more dangerous variants of Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized five new strains as “worrisome variants” for his increased transmission and aggravated consequences on human metabolism; These are the effects that Fusillo fears will affect the already weakened Paraguayan health system.

Two of these strains, the Indian and South African variants, they have already been detected in Argentina. The Nation’s Ministry of Health communicated earlier this month that they had been detected for the first time in the case of travelers arriving at Ezeiza airport.

The impact of Covid in Paraguay

Last Friday, the Paraguayan Ministry of Health recorded 3,031 positive for the coronavirus, the biggest daily record since the start of the pandemic. On the same day, the health facility confirmed that beds in intensive care units were at their maximum capacity. To date, the country has 332,971 infected, 8,360 dead and 274,920 recovered, according to the WHO.

Fusillo drew attention to the conditions in Paraguayan hospitals, which he described as new and desperate lack of means: “It’s already unbearable. The reality in the hospital is make decisions that are too difficult every day“, to complain.

While Alberto Fernandez puts Argentina in total closure for nine days to try to stop the advance of the second wave, Fusillo believes that do not expect a strict curentena in Paraguay: “We believe that the decisions have already been taken, that more extreme measures will no longer be taken. We see this decision a long way off. The big problem is that we don’t have vaccines», He concluded.