The hospitals were remote, lacking doctors and lacked beds, and even if they could enter, many patients were too afraid to go, convinced that setting foot in a hospital would lead them to death.
Mery Fasabi collected herbs, soaked them in boiling water and asked her relatives to breathe in the vapors, and also made onion and ginger syrups to clear congested airways.
“We had wisdom about those plants, but we didn’t know if they would help treat COVID,” the professor said. “With the pandemic, we notice new things. “
The ruthless march of the coronavirus pandemic throughout Peru, the country with a COVID-19 mortality rate shown in line with the world’s population, has forced many indigenous teams to seek their own remedies. fashionable medicine, make many not get popular remedies like oxygen treatment to treat serious viral cases.
In the Ucayali region, government immediate reaction organizations deployed in a handful of indigenous communities discovered infection rates of up to 80% through antibody testing. Food and drug donations have reached a fraction of the population. Many say the state presence they saw increased. here from an organization tasked with collecting the bodies of the dead.
In a place known as the “Kilometer 20” near the city of Pucallpa, a new cemetery was created with the remains of about 400 people.
“We’ve been forgotten,” said Roberto Wikleff, 49, a shipibo guy who resorted to Fasabi’s remedies to help treat his COVID-19. “We don’t exist for them. “
Peru is home to one of the largest indigenous peoples in Latin America, whose ancestors lived in the Andean country before the arrival of Spanish settlers, entire tribes were wiped out through infectious diseases brought through Europeans, today many live and paint in urban spaces, others still live in remote amazon spaces that have few doctors , to name the ability to perform complex molecular tests or treat the virus.
Wikleff said the 10 doctors, nurses and assistants who paint at a nearby clinic gave up their jobs when the coronavirus arrived. Shipibo had tried to save him access to COVID-19 by blocking roads and ousting himself. But in May, he and others were still suffering from fever, cough, breathing difficulties and headaches.
A month later, he still felt unhealthy and turned to Fasabi, who, along with 15 other volunteers, had established an improvised remedy center.
“I got there in agony,” he recalls.
The Shipibos emphasize the use of a plant known as “matico”. The buddleja globosa plant has green leaves and a tangerine-colored flower. Faabi said that the remedies are by no means a cure, but that her holistic technique is effective. Unlike the hospitals, volunteers dressed the patients with mask technique, giving them words of encouragement and touching them with massages.
“We give peace to our patients,” he said.
Juan Carlos Salas, director of Ucayali’s regional fitness agency, said efforts to build the hospital’s capacity have been very fruitless. The region of about one million people along a winding river had only 18 beds of extensive care at the beginning of the pandemic and now has about 28 beds. The shortage of specialists means they haven’t been there to fill all the beds.
At the height of the epidemic in May and June, about 15 more people died every day, he said. In total, approximately 14,000 cases have been diagnosed, probably a significant insufficient count.
“We had no way of treating patients,” he said. “We couldn’t settle for more. “
It stated that transport was one of the biggest barriers to the remedy of Aboriginal groups, some of which can only be reached by helicopter or eight-hour boat. The bustling port of Pucallpa, where wood, bananas and other fruits are loaded into export boats, is considered one of the main resources of contagion.
Of approximately 59,000 antibody tests, approximately 2,500 were administered to Aboriginal groups.
“We were surprised,” Salas said, “most had become infected. “
Lizardo Cauper, president of the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle, said that of about 500,000 Aboriginal people living in the Amazon, his organization estimates that 147,000 have become inflamed with the virus and 3,000 have died.
While the lucky ones recover with ancient remedies, the less fortunate die at home. One government team moves from a straw-roofed Spartan space to another, ripping the dead off the beds and chairs where they took their last breath. cemetery and buried in burnt orange soil.
Rider Sol Sol, 48, said he and a team of gravediggers buried up to 30 more people a day at the height of the pandemic. The father of four of the paintings before he was given the job of gravedigger.
“I thank God for having a job,” he said.
Today, with the decrease in the death toll, it is the only one that paints maximum days. Alone in the middle of rows of white crosses, he tries not to let his brain go to the yes. The bodies come with a call and a number and him. doesn’t think about their stories.