Indigenous people face a serious humanitarian crisis, with an increase in mortality in 2023
During 2023, the Unified Health System (SUS), which serves the indigenous people of the Yanomami ethnic group in Roraima, eliminated hundreds of thousands of medicines. Among the discarded drugs, there is at least a batch of 1,690 units of Paxlovid, an antiviral used in the fight against Covid-19, whose market value could reach almost R$250,000.
Other inputs, such as rapid “covid-19” and “HIV” tests, were also discarded.
Ministry of Health blames Bolsonaro management
The Ministry of Health reported that it inherited stocks of medicines from the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), however, these stocks did not have enough time to be distributed and used. Faced with this issue, the Ministry is striving to restructure indigenous health policies, with the goal of avoiding waste and ensuring distribution according to demand.
Indigenous leaders reported to Estadão that the Yanomami Indigenous Land experienced a shortage of medicines during the time when these now discarded medicines were still valid, that is, during the years 2021 and 2022.
The disposal of medicines was carried out by the Yanomami Indigenous Special Health District (DSEI-YY), a subdivision of the SUS. Information on this fact was acquired through the Access to Information Law (LAI) and covers two groups of tables. The largest of these groups records the disposal of more than 257 thousand items.
The most discarded drugs were ivermectin (up to 48,228 tablets) and chloroquine (up to 12,580).
A serious humanitarian crisis affects the Yanomami, and information from the Ministry of Health points to an increase in the mortality rate in 2023. The information is from Diário do Poder.