The Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said this Wednesday (29) that the ministry will send vaccines and medicines to cities in Bahia that have been hit by heavy rains that hit the region and destroyed the supplies of medicines and immunization agents in several cities.
“The Ministry of Health is taking strategic supplies, vaccines against Influenza, against Hepatitis A, medicines to treat people who eventually contract leptospirosis, to prevent acute diarrhea, in short, all the need to meet the health emergency resulting from this natural disaster,” he said Queiroga on video with the Minister of Citizenship, João Roma.
The rains in the state have already left 21 dead and forced thousands of people to leave their homes, which were destroyed or are compromised.
The ministers highlighted the fact that they had held a videoconference with President Jair Bolsonaro, who urged them to pay full attention to the region, they said.
Bolsonaro has been on vacation on the coast of Santa Catarina since Monday, which has been the target of criticism. Two weeks ago, he flew over areas hit by heavy rains in Bahia, but decided not to return to the state after the recent floods.
In an interview with CNN Brasil, the minister of Regional Development, Rogério Marinho, said that the president has given all his support to actions in the state.
“The physical presence, which has already taken place in Bahia, does not mean that there will be greater or lesser intensity of help”, he pointed out.
Earlier, Queiroga, had stated that the ministry will also send more resources and doctors to cities in Bahia affected by the rains, although he has not detailed the amount of these transfers.
“We are going to work today from the perspective of having more resources for public health in Bahia. We are going to strengthen primary care with doctors and also specialized care. I have a technical team discussing this matter to see how we can strengthen it with financial resources”, he said.
“President Jair Bolsonaro called me early in the morning asking that we can give all the attention to the people of Bahia, we already have emergency physicians in the area, the primary care physicians should arrive in the first week of January”, he reinforced, in an interview on the door. of the ministry.
In a statement, the ministry informed that, since the beginning of the heavy rains that affected the southern region of Bahia, the ministry has provided all the necessary support to the State.
“More than 4.2 tons of medicines and supplies have already been delivered, in addition to 100,000 doses of vaccines against flu, vaccines for hepatitis A and B, among other immunization agents,” he said.
The folder also mentioned that it published an ordinance allocating 12.7 million reais to municipalities attested to by the rains in the States of Bahia and Minas Gerais, of which 7 million reais only for Bahia.
The day before, the governor of Bahia, Rui Costa, said that there are municipalities where the supply of medicines and vaccines has been lost because of the rains.
“In some places, 100% of all medicine and all vaccines were lost because some municipal health departments and medicine depots were completely underwater,” he said, broadcast on social media.
A preliminary survey carried out by the State Council of Municipal Health Secretaries of the State pointed out that at least 17 cities in Bahia had losses of immunization agents, medicines and hospital supplies.
The federal government has already sent ministers to monitor the situation and issued a provisional measure transferring part of 200 million reais in resources to help the affected municipalities.
Reference: CNN Brasil
