Colombian Public Health Association asks INS for an urgent epidemiological brigade in Kogui and Nukak-Maku communities

It was reported that 40 indigenous children from the Kogui indigenous reservation in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta died in less than three months from respiratory diseases. The deaths, according to the data provided, were recorded between January and February.

“There is no exact statistic of children who have died, but they say that there are about 40 children who have died. The symptoms, high fever, a lot of cough, peeling in their mouths, they don't want to eat, some give them diarrhea, vomit (...) is worrying because it is one of the communities that is far away,” said Sandra Moscote, indigenous leader.

This case has aroused concern on the part of the hospital sector, which has requested that communication and action plans be activated between the medical bodies of Magdalena and La Guajira. It should be noted that at the moment the authorities have not confirmed the figure of the 40 minors who died as a result of the disease.

Faced with the situation, Dionne Cruz, president of the Colombian Association of Public Health, told Infobae that “we are launching a national, territorial and international SOS by our native indigenous communities, Kogui of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Nukak-Maku, in Guaviare, since between January and February of this year there would be 20 minors died due to a severe respiratory problem and lung problems, but the origin is not known, although it has been ruled out that it is Covid-19″.

Cruz called on the National Institute of Health (INS) to move with its epidemiological surveillance brigades to detect the focus and reason for this outbreak, which has been lethal in those communities, which have problems of malnutrition, as well as the absence of programs to promote and prevent health, growth and development, controls doctors.

“We assume that vaccination schedules are also low. The most affected communities are in the Taminaka settlement, in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the department of La Guajira, a few kilometers from Palomino,” he said.

He also referred to the Nukak-Maku: “They have been victims of forced displacement, of abandonment in general and of the lack of coverage of the health system. They are in a situation that is not new, but which has become more acute as the problems of hunger and health”,

“Currently they present an apparently outbreak of scabies, according to what the doctors of San José del Guaviare have ruled, among the populations located on the Hunger Edge and spreading to other villages such as Aguabonita, there are 17 families made up of 110 indigenous people, with a very serious dermis affected, in addition to being hit by the hunger and malnutrition,” Cruz revealed.

He added that in the settlements of that community for more than four months they have not had drinking water, which makes these profiles of epidemics, gastrointestinal infections, acute diarrheal disease, dermatological, occur more frequently.

Cruz pointed out that “they are exposed to begging, drug addiction, exploitation and sexual abuse. We call for immediate attention to our indigenous peoples by guaranteeing their rights to life, health, food, territory and security.”

Likewise, with the arrival of the pandemic and since the start of the vaccination scheme in Colombia in February 2021, 293 municipalities were identified in 30 departments with indigenous populations, and so far 89% of municipalities with indigenous populations had less than 50% complete coverage of the vaccination scheme. of its population.

And the Territorial Monitoring System (SMT), has identified 94,015 cases of Covid-19 that have affected 79 Indigenous Peoples and Nations in Colombia.

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