Epidemiologist Avertino Barreto believes that the lack of investment in the Mozambican health system predicted the impact of the third wave of the epidemic in Mozambique, noting that without the efforts of health professionals, the country would have been in a critical situation due to the increase in the number of infections.
“This could have been avoided if the investment in health was serious,” declared in an interview with Lusa, Avertino Pereto, who is also a member of the scientific committee set up to advise the government on decision-making in the face of the epidemic in Mozambique.
For an epidemiologist, the investment made in the past decade on health does not match the growth of Mozambique, which now faces a disease “more aggressive in terms of transmissibility” than other epidemics the country has faced in the past, with an emphasis on cholera.
“We have other epidemics, and if we talk about records, this disease still does not have a catastrophic meaning like others I have personally experienced,” added the doctor, who has been associated with the health system for more than 40 years. The main mistake of the Mozambican executive was not betting on investing in infrastructure and capacity in the country’s health sector in recent years.
He declared that “by inability or negligence in investing in public health, we are subjecting the extremely poor population to resorting to the private sector, where the cost is prohibitive and the people cannot afford it.”
Avertino Pareto recognizes that, in the past 12 years, Mozambique has experienced a reversal of values and that today’s policies and priorities are no longer focused on people’s health.
“There is complete anxiety and selfishness in a completely insulting thought,” warned the doctor, who believes the country should already have minimal infrastructure and the ability to “make a more effective and humane response.”
On the other hand, the epidemiologist continued, the commitment and effort of health professionals on the front lines was key to avoiding a worst-case scenario, at a time when salaries for this category remain low due to the importance of the sector.
The epidemiologist, referring to the work being done by Polana Kaneko Hospital, one of the capital’s main hospitals to hospitalize COVID-19 patients, added as a regional example of the response to the pandemic.
Mozambique, which is in the third wave of Covid-19 and has records in the number of deaths and hospitalizations in recent weeks, has a total of 1,600 deaths and more than 131,000 cases, according to the latest updates.
The Ministry of Health has warned that inpatient capacity may be depleted, having already been registered in Maputo province, which no longer has beds for new patients and has turned to Maputo city to help seriously ill patients.
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