Brazil has reached just over two million cases of coronavirus and around 56,000 deaths up to date, with daily cases being added to that number since the first case in February. Slowly spreading in Sao Paulo then to other major cities, the virus eventually spread to smaller towns and deep into the Amazon rainforest tribes. Now, scientists are saying that there will be a 'boomerang effect' of cases returning to major cities as patients transfer to urban hospitals with specialized medical treatment.
While some countries like Australia, China and South Korea have entered the second wave of the virus, Brazil and the rest of America are still battling their first. Experts are saying that the local situation is quite complex as cities are attempting to slowly reopen businesses for the sake of the economy.
Neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis from Duke University who is advising the Brazilian government's COVID-19 task force, said that 'the boomerang of cases that will return to the (state) capitals will be a tsunami.'
Although the United States still has the most cases of the virus around the world, most days, Brazil's daily rate is higher. Last week, 60% of the new cases came from small cities while 50% of deaths are from outside the major cities.
Amazon Tribes
In the Amazon rainforest, there were 980 cases among the indigenous people with 125 deaths in late May. The Arara people in the Cachoeira Seca territory had 46% of their 121 tribe members infected.
An Arara man told Survival International, an indigenous rights organization, said that they are very worried since their health post nearby says 'there is no medicine, no ventilator.' The nearest hospital is three days away. 'We're asking for protection with these coronavirus cases,' he said. While the rate of death in the cities are 5.2%, 9.1% of indigenous people with coronavirus are dying.
An isolated or uncontacted tribe, the Kokama, are one of the most vulnerable to pathogens from outsiders since they lack the immune defenses of external illnesses. 55 have already died from the virus since April. The first case was from a service doctor who returned to the forest after a conference in southern Brazil and did not self-isolate for two weeks according the standard protocol, infecting a family of four.
Indigenous people have been through wave after wave of fatal epidemics," says Glenn Shepard, an American anthropologist at the Emilio Gueldi Museum, in Belém. "So they knew exactly what to do-isolate yourself.' This isolation is a result of illnesses and violent displacement, he explained.
Boomerang Effect
As the virus had spread outside the major cities, only 10% of municipalities have intensive care units, meaning that severe cases from other areas need to be transported to these specialized centers.
Describing the boomerang effect, Nicolelis said 'The virus moves into the interior, along the highways, you start having community transmission, people fall ill, get worse and return to the (state) capital to be treated.'
Professor Gonzalo Vecina Neto at the University of Sao Paulo said that 'The disease is now feeding off people's movement.' It gets into interior places of people moving constantly such as truck drivers and other delivery services. The coronavirus has proven to no longer be just a 'little flu.'
