In recent days, the indigenous health entity Gonawindua Ette Ennaka confirmed that, to date, 21 Kogi children under the age of five, belonging to the Taminaka reserve located in the Sierra Nevada, have died from a strange influenza virus. The infection that has been affecting the minors of that population set off the alarms of the health authorities, who seek to provide them with medical care. Recently, however, they indicated that difficult access to the indigenous reservation has made it difficult to provide medical services.
In dialogue with RCN Radio, the Secretary of Health of the municipality of Dibulla (La Guajira), Ranzel Elías Saurith Lindo, announced that, because the indigenous reservation is located on the Palomino river basin, two days from the nearest urban area, the instability of the land along the way has caused difficult access of vehicles that are intended to provide medical care.
The official also added to the station that the difficulty in reaching the Kogi community has not only been because of the terrain, but also because of the special permission needed by the medical equipment from the traditional indigenous authorities in order to enter the ancestral territory.
Faced with the difficulties, Secretary Saurith informed the media that, this Thursday, March 17, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health of La Guajira (jurisdiction to which the reservation belongs), they held a meeting in which they promised that both the Ministry of Health, EPS, IPS, ICBF and all indigenous and health authorities would work in an articulated way to gain access to ancestral territory.
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The official also told the station that, once the health authorities arrive at the Taminaka reservation, they are instructed not only to control and monitor the respiratory infection that is affecting Kogi children, but also to provide them with nutritional treatment.
For his part, the Secretary of Health of Santa Marta, Deimer Marín, informed the radio station that, according to the report of the indigenous EPS Gonawindua, in addition to the 21 Kogi children who have died from the disease, there are another 15 who are hospitalized in the capital of the department of Magdalena due to the same condition.
Faced with the critical outlook, the Secretary of Health of Santa Marta assured RCN Radio that the health authorities “are already doing the diligence to obtain the results of laboratory tests to determine which germs are affecting them and specify the type of disease.”
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