Cold and death return in the midst of poverty

We arrive again at the tragic moment of the year when, in Peru, hundreds of vulnerable people – especially children – begin to die from the cold. Last week, for example, five boys from the native community of Parijaro (Junín) died from the cold. We have become so accustomed to this shameful phenomenon that its periodic occurrence does not cause much impact on public opinion. Nobody is aware of it.

Due to its periodicity, human beings have learned to prepare to receive the time of cold in a proactive and foresighted manner, but in Peru it seems that this type of foresight does not exist, at least for the governments of the last decades.

In this regard, just last May 6 (in the middle of autumn and shortly after winter), the Supreme Decree No. 047-2022-PCMA, “Multisectoral plan against frost and cold 2022-2024″.

What is striking about that document is that in its article 3, on financing, it says: “The implementation of the measures and actions carried out within the framework of the provisions of this supreme decree is financed with a charge to the budgetary availability of the documents involved, in accordance with their institutional budgets, and without demanding additional resources from the Public Treasury.” In other words, the plan will only be carried out if the ministries involved “have funds available”, since the Central Government will not provide financing.

The truth is that, except for accidental hypothermia, cold does not kill humans. The proof of this is given by thousands of communities that normally live in the frigid areas of northern Europe, North America and Asia. There, the State has arranged and financed that the residents have operational communication routes (land, river or air), houses prepared with energy supply to generate heat, electricity that allows them to store water and food, and that it ensures that the residents have participation in economic activities that generate local survival resources.

In this regard, the WHO European Regional Office, in the 2010 report “Climate change, extreme weather events and public health”, He mentions that the consequences of cold on human health are of two types: disease and injury.

“Anemic and malnourished children are unable to form an adequate number of defense cells against infections.”

Diseases include respiratory (asthma and chronic obstructive disease), cardiovascular (heart attacks and strokes), peripheral vascular (Raynaud’s syndrome), muscular (tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome), and skin (psoriasis, cold dermatitis). , atopic dermatitis). Meanwhile, the injuries include chilblains, hypothermia, trench footand accidents.

The point is that, according to data from the Ministry of Health (Minsa), the hundreds of children who die each year from cold in Peru they do not lose their lives due to illnesses or injuries associated with the cold.

Reasons for deaths

Peruvian children die from pulmonary complications caused by common respiratory infections, such as colds, flu and bronchitis, that is, they do not die from the coldbut because of pneumonia. But then, How is this lung infection the leading cause of death from cold in Peruvian children?

The answer is given by the article “Research to reduce pneumonia mortality in developing countries” from the University of Oxford, England, which helps us understand that the reason why pneumonia kills Peruvian children is because of poverty and malnutrition.

The sequence of events then occurs as follows: thousands of forgotten Peruvians live in a situation of isolation and permanent poverty in the heights of the Andes. They are part of 25.9% of poor Peruvians identified by the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) in 2021

The children who die from the cold are probably the children of these poor Peruvians who are also part of the 11.5% of children under 5 years old who had chronic malnutrition and 38.8% of children from 6 to 35 months with anemia in 2021 (70.4% in Puno and 60.8% in Ucayali).

Anemic and malnourished children are unable to form an adequate number of defense cells (lymphocytes) and antibodies (proteins) to fight against winter viral infections. Unable to fight back, a simple viral infection causes a severe bacterial lung infection. Death from pneumonia is then an indicator of the poverty from a country.

Although the Oxford review emphasizes that vaccination against pneumonia is important to prevent these deaths, it says that the only long-term solution is to correct the poverty and living conditions of these forgotten communities.

Corollary

Every year we know that winter is coming and, with it, the cold. And also, the society strives to collect clothes and coats for those affected. Depending on how science describes how pneumonia and death develop in these children, It is not a matter of cold, clothing or shelter.

Those communities don’t have roads, well-paying jobs, nutrition education, innovative medical services, a variety of foods, and heated homes.

What these communities need is well thought out short, medium and long term development plans to get out of poverty and improve their living conditions.