Iquitos, still reeling from a dengue fever outbreak and plagued by poverty, relies on air deliveries for medicine, equipment and oxygen
www.theguardian.com
Hemmed in by a sea of jungle, plagued by dire poverty and already reeling from a dengue fever outbreak, Iquitos is now the second major Amazon city – after Manaus in Brazil – to take a brutal hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Iquitos faces an added obstacle in efforts to contain the disease: as the largest city in the world which cannot be reached by road, it depends on intermittent air deliveries for essential supplies of medicine, personal protective equipment and oxygen. “We are living in a catastrophe,” said Graciela Meza, executive director of the regional health office in Loreto, the vast Amazon region which surrounds the city of half a million inhabitants.
The city’s main public hospital was overflowing with nearly five times the number of patients its 180 beds could hold, said Meza, who herself was recovering from the virus. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, or even in my dreams,” said Meza, a lifelong Iquitos resident, who compared the situation to living in a disaster film. “Most victims have died from a lack of oxygen; 90% have died because of lack of medical supplies,” Meza added.
