Healthcare of Indigenous Amazonian Peoples in response to COVID-19: marginality, discrimination and revaluation of ancestral knowledge in Ucayali, Peru
Doreen Montag, Marco Barboza, Lizardo Cauper, Ivan Brehaut, Isaac E. Alva, A. E. Bennett, José Sánchez-Choy, Sarmiento Barletti, Pilar M. Valenzuela, José Manuyama, Italo García Murayari, Miguel Guimaraes Vásquez, Celso Aguirre Panduro, Angela Giattino, Edwin Julio Palomino Cadenas, Rodrigo Lazo, Carlos Delgado, Alfonso Nino, Elaine C. Flores, M. Amalia Pesantes, Juan Pablo Murillo, Luisa Elvira Belaúnde, Sergio Recuenco, Robert Chuquimbalqui, Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo
Abstract
"Systematic and persistent discrimination against Indigenous Peoples translates into differential health outcomes when analysed through ethnicity and/or mother tongue.1 In Peru, morbidity and mortality rates among Indigenous Peoples for COVID-19 appear to confirm this.2 The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the historical structural violence against Indigenous Peoples that currently takes a disproportionate toll in the Peruvian Amazon. This equally applies to Indigenous Andean Peoples and Afro Peruvians. Indigenous Peoples in voluntary isolation and those in initial contact are at highest health risk in this pandemic as they have no previous immunity against common infectious diseases, and lack access to public healthcare services. The Peruvian government introduced a state of emergency early on, but it did not work as theoretically expected because of the deeply rooted inequalities in Peru."